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THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES OF 
THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 









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The Facts and Mysteries 
eat < ter ORL LHe SOA LEI LCR EIN! 
The Christian Faith 


A Brief Statement of the 
Things Christians Believe, 
and the Reasons Why 
They Believe Them. 












BY 


ALBERTUS ‘PIETERS, D.D. 


Dosker - Hulswit Professor of English Bible and Missions 
in the Western Theological Seminary 
Reformed Church in America 







WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING CO. 
The Reformed Press 
208 Pearl St., Grand Rapids, Mich. 






wt 3 
JAN 2 1 1927 
A ~~ 







Copyright by 


Wm. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING CO. 
Grand Rapids, Michigan 
1926 


CHAPTER 


I. 
II. 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 


PAGE 
MI AOCTSLANIG LV VteTIOS Micra) is cay ON a ae ic 
DV AE AEN © EL OE Oe Te rs ae Sie 12 
Why We Beheve/in God a iy 15 
ne Great: Dilemmas sie et ene 19 
The Greatest Thing that Ever Happened.................... 22 
God’s Visit—the Documents..............-....-2..------+---------- 25 
Why We Believe the Gospels Tell the Truth. I......... 29 
Why We Believe the Gospels Tell the Truth. IT,...... 33 
The \Promise of His;Coming! eco 37 
Prophecy.and Hultimenten eee ead 40 
TY DY ENG GOd) COT eee eee eer eae eC Dy 44 
1 F Godd Mihi ci ahi ay COON, aR RAL DIVE RE RNSer dea ME BUREN UAC D RA ans LU) AT 
ue UU PINENG WIA V. piecclee re Nea I hh apa 51 
RIQUIVELANCE TTOM lt Anes io bai sse ace eal, eacuN 54 
the Pharisee and the Publican::.).02:.0.0200 ns 58 
Everlasting Life eek EO EONS Rinne 62 
Sanbboves the \Worldia cs. mi We one Ma 66 
OP TSG nL COCHRAN ea WN 70 
NON TE GR TVS SEE: Wi PENG TUL OH toh Diag Nae AA RAV RE AM 74 
FE MGe DIPSSCONEHA OL DOETO Weil. coos ses sce ceesssucuotssecmlosbauasaces 78 
REESE TOL DAS POU ICU. Sunita Toe tl. led shut etea Une s Mat 82 
MITACICS “ANG CIeNCe yee ye eee 86 
PEO MITRCIOS OL F OBUBI on Whe tare i Lyacuctdesaetih actus 90 
Alternative Explanations of the Miracles.................. 94 
The Importance of the Miracles................0........2..2..... 99 


Pee PALM LOT OnTIstie teu. Nitto tee ee ETN e Ae 103 


CHAPTER 


XXVII. 
XXVIII. 
X XIX. 
XXX. 
XXXI. 
XXXII. 
XXXIII. 
XXXIV. 
XXXV. 
XXXVI. 
AXXVII. 
XXXVIII. 
XXXIX. 
XL. 

XLI. 
XLII. 
XLITI. 
XLIV. 


Table of Contents (Continued) 


PAGE 
Christ's Death V oluntary acco iccctos festoceeeeeeca epee 107 
The. Resurrection: of }/Christ-.i0.00 2 i eager 114 
The Resurrection and the Apostolic Church................ 118 
The Evidence of the Resurrection. I...........---..----..----- 122 
The Evidence of the Resurrection. II............-..--.......- 127 
Indirect Evidence of the Resurrection...........-...--------.-- 132 
The Resurrection and Revealed Religion.................... 137 
The Mystery of the Atoning Death....................2.......-- 142 
The ‘Offense of the’ Crossiiiic2c-2Ac20.. closeness 147 
The Mystery of the Mystic Union............................-.-- 152 
The Mystery:of Saving Faith... Ae eee 157 
‘Lhe: Lordship of Jesuse. fe 162 
The Mystery of the New Birth..............002.2022222222-2...- 166 
The Mystery of Divine Selection..................2.22..-22.------ ip 
The Mystery of the Holy Trinity.........000000202020022.2. 176 
The Mystery of the Virgin’ Birth)... 181 
The Mystery of the Expected Return................-...--..-- 188 


The Mystery of the Life After Death.........................- 194 


i 


THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES OF 
THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 


E SHALL ENDEAVOR, in this book, to set forth, as 

clearly and plainly as possible, what the Christian 
religion is, and why it is worthy to be believed. We do 
this in the hope that some, who already believe in Christ, 
may have their faith strengthened, and may get a clearer 
insight into the reasons why it is a reasonable faith; and 
in the further hope that others, who are not yet Christians, 
may learn to accept the gospel. 


In other words, this discussion will bear testimony to 
the Catholic apostolic, historic Christian faith. We do not 
look upon ourselves as giving utterance to “opinions” on 
religion, whether our own or those of others. Our effort 
will be constantly to state, as the Christian faith, only what 
the great mass of Christian believers, of all communions, 
accept, and always have accepted, whether they were able 
to formulate it in so many words or not. There is such a 
thing as the Christian religion, one in its essential essence, 
however manifold in its forms. 


That in such an effort many controversial points will 
be touched upon, is inevitable, but we shall not discuss 
them in a controversial way. In stating our own convic- 
tions positively, we intend no disrespect to those who do 
not yet accept the Chistian religion, or to others, who be- 
lieve themselves to be Christians, but would find them- 
selves excluded if they accepted our testimony as to what 
the Christian religion is. There are many such, and if this 
book should find readers among them, we beg them 
earnestly to consider whether they really stand upon the 
Christian platform. 


ya 


8 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


In the course of the discussion, we shall from time to 
time notice the opinions of those from whom we differ, 
but we shall not be able to do that in every case. This 
does not mean that we do not know what has been said 
on the other side and have not considered it. Most of 
these topics have been so long and so thoroughly dis- 
cussed that the standard arguments on both sides are well 
understood. On the main points we hope to give satisfac- 
tory reasons, but we shall not be able to take the space to 
prove everything we say. We cordially invite the reader to 
check up our statements of fact in the public libraries by 
consulting competent authorities. We believe the Chris- 
tian religion, but we do not believe it ignorantly or thought- 
lessly, and our earnest desire is, not only to lead men to 
faith, but to lead them to a well-grounded and intelligent 
faith. , 


This book bears the dual title: FAcrs AND MYSTERIES, 
because the Christian religion bears this two-fold nature. 
It is a revealed religion, but there is an element in it that 
is not revealed. Beyond every other system of religion or 
philosophy, it is rooted first of all in the soil of facts, by 
which we mean externally observable and _ historically 
provable events, things that really happened, and can be 
shown to have happened. It is not based on fiction. As 
the apostle says: “We have not followed cunningly de- 
vised fables”. Neither do its fundamental facts belong to 
a pre-historic age, comparable to the mythological stories 
of the Gentiles. Important and precious as the first chap- 
ters of Genesis are, it is not in them that we find a firm 
basis for our faith. We accept them by faith, but the 
facts upon which our faith stands must themselves be 
provable otherwise than by faith. Christianity took its 
rise in the full daylight of history, not in its misty dawn. 


Neither is the Christian religion the product of human 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 9 


thought, like the great systems of Buddha, Confucius, 
Plato, or Aristotle. It had its origin in experience, not in 
thinking — the thinking came later. Much of the disfavor 
with which some educatéd men regard religion would be 
dispelled if they saw this more clearly. The scientific 
spirit of our age has great respect for facts; it sets little 
store by anything that is mere speculation, without a firm 
basis in observation and experiment. This is right. The 
Christian religion, by virtue of its origin and nature, meets 
this demand for facts. We invite the reader first of all to 
examine the facts. If he does this patiently and fairly, he 
will be prepared to consider the other element in the 
Christian faith. This other element we have called the 
Mysteries. 


The Christian faith makes assertions not only with re- 
spect to externally observable and historically provable 
events, but also with respect to things no man can see and 
none can prove. It is greatly concerned with God’s love to 
man, with the atonement of Christ, with the life beyond 
death, with the regeneration of the soul, and similar sub- 
jects. These lie quite outside the range where human ob- 
servation is possible, or where human reason can function 
with any prospect of leading us to true knowledge. This 
is the field of the “Mysteries”, by which term we mean, not 
things that are mysterious. and incomprehensible (al- 
though some of them are), but things that must be given 
us by revelation; things that can indeed be proved to have 
come from well-accredited organs of revelation, but that 
can not, independently of such revelation, be supported 
by sufficient proof — many of them by any kind of proof. 


For instance, let us take the Second Coming of Christ, 
or the Resurrection of the Body. These things are gener- 
ally believed among Christians. They are taught in the 
Apostles’ Creed. Yet every one will admit that there is no 


10 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


possible proof for them, apart from revelation. It can be 


_ easily proved that these doctrines were taught by Christ 


and the apostles, the authorized and accredited teachers 

of the Christian faith. Hence Christians believe them, 

without even seeking any other ground. This is what we 

mean, in this discussion, by a “Mystery”, a doctrine 

received upon authority, without any appeal to reason. 
This is what the apostle meant when he said:* 


“Kye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
entered into the heart of man, the things which 
God hath prepared for those that love him, but 
God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.” 
(I Corinthians 2: 9, 10.) 


This he calls speaking “the wisdom of God in a mystery”. 
He uses the word in the same sense when he says: “Be- 
hold I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we 
shall all be changed”. 


To receive one of the mysteries is to perform an act of 
faith in the intellectual realm, to bow before another as 
having information we can not attain to by our own 
powers, and to accept what he teaches, without other 
proof than his word. This is such an act as a child per- 
forms, when he is told by his teacher that the earth is 
round, and believes it, although the assertion contradicts 
the evidence of his own senses, and is utterly contrary to 
all the reasoning of which he is capable. To the child it is 
more credible than his senses should deceive him, and 


~ that his own reasoning should be at fault, than that the 


7“ 


teacher should say what is not true. 


Precisely so it is with the mysteries of the Christian 
religion. We receive from Christ and the apostles what 
they teach, in the spirit of a child. This is part of what 
Christ meant when he said: “Verily I say unto you: 
Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little 


* Quotations from the Bible, in this book, are taken sometimes from the King 
James Version, and sometimes from the American Revised Version. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 11 


child, he shall in no wise enter therein’. The facts are the 
external, earthly, natural part of the Christian religion; 
the mysteries are the heavenly and spiritual part. “How- 
beit, that was not first which was spiritual, but that which 
is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual’. It is 
our right and duty to examine the facts. We must not 
take them on faith, we must demand evidence, and good 
evidence, of their truth. If we are satisfied that the facts 
are as the Christian religion holds them to be, then, after 
that, it is our duty to receive the mysteries reverently, in 
faith, in the spirit of a little child, without being so un- 
reasonable as to demand evidence for that which is in its 
nature beyond evidence. 


12 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


Il. 
WHY ARE WE HERE? 


N DISCUSSING RELIGION, let us start at the beginning, 
with the undoubted fact that we are here in this world, 
men and women together, human beings, living our little 
lives and presently passing away. What are we here for? 
What does life mean to you? Has it any meaning or pur- 
pose that makes it worth while? 


Here is Mark Twain’s view of life, as given in his re- 
cently published autobiography—is it yours? 


“A myriad of men are born; they labor and sweat and 
struggle for bread; they squabble and scold and fight; they 
scramble for little mean advantages over each other. Age 
creeps upon them and infirmities follow; shames and hu- 
miliations bring down their prides and their vanities. Those 
they love are taken from them, and the joy of life is 
turned to aching grief. The burden of pain, care, misery, 
grows heavier year by year. At length ambition is dead, 
pride is dead, vanity is dead; longing for release is in 
their place. It comes at last —the only unpoisoned gift 
earth ever had for them — and they vanish from a world 
where they were of no consequence; where they achieved 
nothing, where they were a mistake and a failure and a 
foolishness; where they left no sign that they have existed 
_ —a world that will lament them a day and forget them 
’ forever.” (Autobiography, Vol. I, p. 37.) 


It is a black picture, but it is a true outline of human 
life —if there is no God. 
Listen to the great words of St. Augustine: 


“Q God, Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our 
hearts find no rest until they rest in Thee”. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 13 


That was the trouble with Mark Twain; he had not 
learned to find his rest in God, and he found rest nowhere. 


All Asia follows the teaching of the Buddha, which 
means, “The Enlightened One”, the one who has learned 
to understand things as they truly are, to look through the 
appearance of things to the reality behind them; and the 
teaching of the Buddha in regard to human life is not far 
from that of Mark Twain. Among other characteristic ex- 
pressions of the Buddhists is this: “The Four Sorrows”, 
by which they mean sickness, death, old age, and also to 
be born into the world! Think of a view of human life 
that makes babyhood one of the four greatest evils that,” 
come upon the human race. One of their ancient writers 
says that there is no sadder sight than to see a mother 
with her baby. Contrast that with the Christmas story 
among us, and ask yourself what makes our view of life 
so different. 


If there is no God, the Buddhist and Mark Twain are 
right. As St. Paul says, to be without God is to be without 
' hope. 

Prof. George Romanes was one of the most famous 
scientists of the nineteenth century. He was a co-worker 
with Darwin in establishing the scientific view of evolu- 
tion, and it profoundly influenced his thinking. In his 
book, Thoughts on Religion, the product of his mature 
years, he has this to say in regard to the nature of man 
without God: 

“Man’s nature without God is thoroughly miserable 
.... 90me men are not conscious of the cause of this 
misery; this, however, does not prevent the fact of their 
being miserable. For the most part they conceal the fact 
as well as possible from themselves by occupying their 
minds with society, sport, frivolity of all kinds; or, if intel- 
lectually disposed, with science, art, literature, business, etc. 


14 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


This, however, is but to fill the starving belly with husks. 
I know from experience the intellectual distractions of 
scientific research, philosophical speculation, and artistic 
pleasures; but am also well aware that even when all are 
taken together and well sweetened to taste, in respect of 
consequent reputation, means, social position, etc., the 
whole concoction is but as high confectionery to a starving 
man. ... There is no finality to rest in, while disease and 
death are always standing in the background. 


“T take it, then, as unquestionably true that this whole 
negative side of the subject proves a vacuum in the soul 
of man which nothing can fill save faith in God.” 


Professor Romanes, when he wrote these words, was 
not a Christian. He had been one in early life, but his 
scientific work had drawn his mind away from Christian 
faith. Finally, after a lifetime of study, he came back to it 
again, influenced, in part, no doubt, by his clear percep- 
tion of the great fact that life without God is a life with- 
out purpose or meaning. Thus did he illustrate the 
aphorism of Bacon: 


“A little philosophy inclineth men’s minds to atheism, 
but depth in philosophy bringeth them about again to 
religion”. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 15 


HIT. 
WHY WE BELIEVE IN GOD. 


HEN WE SPEAK to men of God, and of the neces- 

sity of faith in Him, they often say: “That’s all 

right, we should like to believe in Him, too, but how do 
you know that God really exists? Can you prove it?” 


No, we cannot prove that God exists. We can prove 
that the earth is round, that the three angles of a triangle 
are equal to two right angles, and a few other things — 
chiefly in mathematics, chemistry, and similar sciences. 
That is to say, we can show by a process of reasoning that 
these things are true, so clearly that for every one intelli- 
gent enough to understand the argument, it becomes im- 
possible to doubt. 


We cannot prove the existence of God in that way. : 


“Canst thou by searching find out God?” said one of 
Job’s friends to him. Job could not, nor has any one else 
ever been able to do it. 


“In the wisdom of God man by wisdom knew not God”, 
says the apostle Paul. That is: God has wisely so ar- 
ranged the world and so adjusted the processes of human 
knowledge that if a man seeks to know God he must go 
about it in some other way than by pure reason. God is 
not to be discovered by something like a mathematical 
demonstration. Hence no man who insists on reasoned 
proof, and refuses to stir until he has it, will ever come to 
a knowledge of God. 


But, observe, that in spite of this absence of proof 
men do believe in God. Such faith is a fact; in one form 


“. 


— 


16 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


or another, an almost universal fact. There are tribes 
that wear no clothing, others that build no houses, some 
that do not know enough to kindle a fire, but none that 
have no gods. Terribly degraded as this belief in God 
may become, it is there, this incurable craving to lay hold 
on some unseen and superhuman Power. Men believe in 
God because they can’t help it, being men. Of course, 
there are exceptions. Men normally have two eyes, but 
some are blind. The normal child has two arms, but here 
and there a child is born with only one. That only shows 
that there are defective individuals, and does not alter 
the rule. So a man who really has no craving after God, 
no tendency to believe in Him (if such a man there be) 
may well ask himself whether he is a normal human being. 


Observe, also, how few things there are that can be 
proved by a process of reasoning, and how little that dis- 
turbs us in many of the most important affairs of our 
lives. Who can prove that a given man was his father? 
Does he not depend in this vital matter absolutely upon 
the word of another? Is this conclusive evidence? Have 
not mothers been known to give false testimony in such a 
case, and have not many adopted children been allowed 
to remain under the impression that they were born of 
those who adopted them? If a man chooses to challenge 
the statement that So and So was my father, how shall I 
satisfy him? Assuredly I shall not be able to produce 
evidence that excludes all possibility of doubt. Yet, who 
is seriously disturbed by such a lack of demonstration? 


Who can by any process of reasoning prove the beauty 
of a painting, or the excellence of a musical composition, 
or the fact of love, or the nobility of self-sacrifice, or the 
validity of the great principles of justice upon which 
society is organized, or the reliability of the senses, or the 
freedom of the will? 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 17 


Observe, again, that we are in a position where we 
must choose to believe in God or to disbelieve in Him. 
If it were a matter that did not concern us — like the ques- 
tion whether there are canals on Mars — we might well 
say: “We are agnostics, we neither believe nor disbelieve. 
We simply refuse to form an opinion without evidence”. 
That is a reasonable position on such matters as the said 
canals, but with regard to God we can not sit on the fence 
in that way. Every man, every day, has to act as if there 
is a God or qs if there is not. If he offers no prayer and 
gives no thanks, if he goes about his business without tak- 
ing God into account, then he is living the life of an 
atheist, whether he intends to do it or not. If he does the 
other thing, he expresses in his life his belief in God. Now 
nothing is clearer than that we must do the one thing or 
the other. We cannot escape it. We must make our ven- 
ture, and lay our wager, either that there is a God or that 
there is none. 





“To be a Christian is to bet your life that there is a 
God’, some one has said. This is not a complete defini- 
tion of the Christian life, but it is good as far as it goes. 
The adventure of being a Christian begins precisely there. 
You don’t bet on an absolute certainty, but you lay your 
bet and stake your life that there is a God. If you will 
do that, certainty will come later, by another road. 


A man who had heard that there was gold in Alaska 
sold all that he had and went in search of it. He had no 
absolute proof, either that there was gold there or that he 
would find any of it, but he had good reasons to think / 
there was gold there, and on the strength of these reasons 
he started out. When he found the gold he had the 
certainty. 


18 — THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


In the same way, we can not furnish a man before he 
starts with such proofs of the existence of God as will take 
out the element of adventure, but if he will start out with 
such evidence as we can offer, he will find the certainty 
later. We cannot prove the existence of God, but we can 
show reasonable ground for believing it. We shall offer 
two or three reasons of that kind in the next chapter. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 19 


TY: 
THE GREAT DILEMMA. 


E MUST LIVE as if there is a God or as if there is 
none. We must do that today, right now. Which 
shall it be? Which is the more reasonable course? 


We believe that it is reasonable to proceed upon a be- 
lief in God; in the first place, because such belief furnishes 
a better account of the existence of the untverse than any 
other that can be given. 

Since the universe exists, it is certain that it either had 
a beginning or had none. In itself, each of these two pos- 
sibilities is about as difficult to believe as the other, and 
yet one of the two is certainly true. As between the two, 
science makes it more reasonable to believe that the world 
had a beginning than that it had not; for science speaks of 
forces constantly at work to produce a process of change. 
That process has always been going on; so far as we know 
it is going on now, and will continue to go on. If this is so, 
then it is certain that ten millions of years ago the uni- 
verse was in a different state from the present, and that 
ten million years hence it will be different again. This is 
the same as to say, in other words, that the present state 
of the universe has been reached by this process operating 
over a certain length of time, neither more nor less. We 
do not know how long a time, but that doesn’t make the 
least difference, it was some definite length of time. If so, 
then the process had a definite beginning, it was not 
eternal. 

The only escape from this conclusion is to suppose that 
somehow the forces of nature return upon themselves — 
work in a circle — making the universe a sort of perpetual 


20 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


motion machine. Science gives no encouragement to such 
a view. It is scientifically more reasonable, therefore, to 
believe that the universe had a beginning than that it had 
none. 

Such a beginning must be due to some cause either 
within the universe itself or outside of it. The former 
alternative is obviously absurd; the latter is the only rea- 
sonable proposition. If we suppose there to exist a Being 
intelligent, eternal, self-existing, almighty, and all-wise, 
who created the universe, we get an account of its origin 
that, though it far surpasses our comprehension, is yet the 
most reasonable account that can be given. Therefore we 
believe that 


“In the beginning God created the heavens 
and the earth’’. 


In the second place we hold it more reasonable to be- 
lieve that God exists than that He does not, because only 
on the basis of such belief can we account for the moral 
nature of man. We are all agreed that there is a differ- 
ence between right and wrong. We know that we ought to 
do certain things and ought not to do certain other things. 
We may disregard this conviction in our lives, but within 
our own hearts we bow to it absolutely. But these words: 
“right”, “wrong”, “ought”, “ought not’, and the like, have 
no meaning aside from certain laws or rules with which 
we feel that we are under obligation to comply. They ex- 
press our feeling that we are responsible for our actions 
to some One outside of us who has authority over us. 
Who is that? Law has no meaning without a law-giver; 
so conscience has no meaning without God. 

“Two things”, said the great philosopher, Immanuel 
Kant, “fill my soul with awe: The starry heavens above 
me and the moral law within me”. 

In the third place we consider it more reasonable to 
believe in God than not to believe in Him, because of the 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 21 


order, meaning, and purpose we find in nalure. The hier- 
oglyphics on the monuments of Egypt were for ages unin- 
telligible. Men seeing them did not know whether they 
were words or scratches without meaning, but finally 
some one found a clue. Working on that, little by little, 
they discovered meaning in what seemed meaningless 
marks; and presently they discovered records of kings 
and laws. When this came to pass, no one doubted that 
intelligent men had engraved these hieroglyphics upon 
the rocks. That the writing was intelligible proved the 
writers to have been intelligent. 

This is a parable of what has happened in our study of 
nature. Phenomena, at first meaningless and unrelated, 
have been found to be full of order and beauty. The more 
progress is made by science, the more order and meaning 
there are found. Since it is an intelligible universe, is it 
not reasonable to believe that it had an intelligent Author? 

We have an answer also to those who say: “You reason 
from only a portion of the facts. If there are things in 
nature that seem to show that the world had an intelligent 
cause, there are many other facts that fail to show it, or 
that go to show the contrary”. We reply that the inscrip- 
tion is not yet wholly deciphered. Much, indeed, still re- 
mains confused and dark. Yet, as in the inscriptions of 
Egypt a single sentence deciphered proved more for the 
intelligence of the writers than a thousand not yet under- 
stood proved against it, so a little knowledge gained of the 
order and beauty of nature weighs more heavily in evi- 
dence than all the rest that is not yet understood. We 
may know little, but the little that we do know is more 
valid for our interpretation of the world than the much 
that we do not know. Hence, we believe that “the in- 
visible things of Him from the creation of the world are 
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are 
made, even His eternal power and Godhead”. 


22 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


Vi 
THE GREATEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED. 


E BELIEVE that we have shown that it is more rea- 

sonable to live as if there is a God than as if there 
is not, and that every man must needs do either the one thing 
or the other; but we do not imagine that real faith in God, 
least of all Christian faith, can be produced by such argu- 
ments. They are intended only to prepare the way, to 
make men willing, without prejudice, to listen to the 
Christian message, which is this: 


“In the beginning was the Word, and the 
Word was with God, and the Word was God... 
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among 
us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the 
only begotten of the Father), full of grace and 
truth’’. 


This is the greatest event that ever took place in hu- 
man history, perhaps — who knows? — the greatest event 
in all the history of the universe. God came to visit us. 
In the person of Jesus Christ He lived for a time among 
us, shared our babyhood, youth, and manhood, walked 
our earth, drank our water, ate our food, bore our sorrows, 
healed our diseases, taught us of Himself, atoned for our 
sins, tasted death on our behalf, broke the power of death 
by rising from the grave, remained long enough among us 
after that to prevent any possibility of mistake, and then 
went back to heaven, after promising some time to come 
again. In the hope of that coming we wait for Him. 


Thus did the Creator stoop to share the life of His 
creation; thus was God once for all made manifest in the 
flesh. It is no wonder that the sons of men date history 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 23 


backwards and forwards from the time when this took 
place. 


This ts the Christian message. 


This message of the incarnation is the distinctive thing 
about the Christian religion, the thing that makes it 
“Christian”, as contrasted with all other religions in the 
world. 


Let us lay aside for a moment the question whether 
this amazing thing is true — we shall come back to that 
later —in order that we may concentrate our thoughts 
upon the meaning and importance of it, assuming it to 
be true. 


In that case, if God really came to visit us, and if we 
have a reliable record of that event, then all question of 
His existence is at an end. Then what we could not 
prove, what we could only show to be a reasonable faith, 
so long as we confined ourselves to a process of reasoning, 
becomes at once an established fact upon the basis of ex- 
perience. To those who accept this message, God has be- 
come a reality in a way that is impossible so long as we 
depend upon logic. To them the conception of God must 
henceforth have a vividness, a sharpness of outline, that 
it did not have before and could not have without such a 
revelation. This is found to be true in experience. [tf Is 
historically certain that such a change in the conception 
of God, from vagueness to vividness, did actually take 
place suddenly in the first century. Noble as are the con- 
ceptions of the Old Testament, and in the Mohammedan 
religion (borrowed largely from the Old Testament) they 
are yet far from having the satisfying clearness of the 
Christian faith. | 

If God was in Christ, then we not only know He exists, 
but we have in Christ a way to get acquainted with Him. 
We can know the character of God by the character of 


24 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


Jesus Christ. He is the translation into concrete human 
terms of the ineffable mysteries of the Godhead. Try to 
tell a friend how another friend looks, and even if you de- 
scribe him well, the impression upon the mind of the 
hearer is indistinct; but produce a good portrait and show 
it to him. At once he gets a clear and correct idea of the 
person you are trying to make known to him. So it is 
with Jesus Christ. He is the portrait of God, “the express 
image of His person”. 

“Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and 
it sufficeth us. Jesus said unto him: Have I been so long 
time with you, and hast thou not known Me, Philip? He 
that hath seen Me hath seen the Father’. 

If Jesus was the incarnation of God, then He can reveal 
God to us, and this is one of the chief things He came on 
earth todo. “No man knoweth the Father but the Son,and 
he to whom the Son willeth to reveal Him”. “I am the 
way, the truth, and the life; no one cometh to the Father 
but by me”. 

If Jesus Christ was God Himself in human form, mov- 
ing and living among human conditions, then He can bring 
us into a satisfying fellowship with God, and nothing is 
plainer, in the New Testament, in the records of the early 
church, and in the subsequent church history, than that 
this has actually taken place. “As the hart panteth after 
the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God”, 
said the psalmist, but this is not the New Testament atti- 
tude. Not panting, longing, hoping to know God, but 
actually knowing Him, was characteristic of the apostles, 
and has been the privilege of thousands since that time 
who have accepted their message. 

Deep in the nature of all mankind, consciously or un- 
_ consciously, there lies a great hunger after God. The 

' Christian message is that this hunger can be satisfied. 
That is good news; THE good news, the Gospel. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 25 


Ab 
GOD’S VISIT — THE DOCUMENTS. 


OD ONCE VISITED this earth, and spent some time 


with us, that we might get acquainted with Him. ~ ff 


This is the great good news we Christians have to tell the 
world. 


We know very well that this is too wonderful a thing 
to be lightly believed, and, therefore, nothing is more wel- 
come to us than to be thoughtfully asked how we know 
that this is so. 


We know the facts from two sources: from the testi- 
mony of the Christian church, and from the documents 
of the New Testament. Strictly speaking, these are but 
one, for the documents are a form of the testimony of the 
church, but for the sake of convenience in discussion we 
make the distinction. 


The truth of this testimony is corroborated by evidence 
from ancient history, by a comparison of prophecy and its 
fulfilment, by the results that have appeared in human 
experience, and by the reaction which this gospel has 
produced in our own hearts. 


What is often forgotten, but is nevertheless very im- 
portant, is the fact that we all of us owe our first knowl- 
edge of the events of Christ’s life, not to the New Testa- 
ment documents, precious as they are, but to oral instruc- 
tion, which oral instruction is a part of the teaching of a 
body that has had a continuous and unbroken existence 
from the very time when Christ was in the world; namely, 
the Christian church. How did almost all of us learn of 
Jesus? Was it not long before we knew how to read, from 


26 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


the lips of our parents and teachers? And did they not 
get their first knowledge of Him in the same way? Go 
back to the time when this story was first told to our 
savage and unlettered forefathers in Europe; was it not 
presented to them in oral form? How did their teachers 
first learn it? In the same way; and so the line goes back 
to the very men who had seen Jesus Christ and talked 
with Him. Here is an apostolic succession that is beyond 
question. Hence our knowledge of Jesus Christ is very 
different from our knowledge of the ancient Babylonian 
and Assyrian kings, whose very existence had been for- 
gotten for centuries, until the day when the inscriptions 
were deciphered on the monuments they had erected. 
Our Christian knowledge is a living knowledge, a continu- 
ous and unbroken testimony, reaching back even to the 
years before this testtmony had been committed to 
writing. Christianity is the religion of a book, to be sure, 
yet not in the same sense in which Mohammedanism and 
Mormonism are book religions, that the whole thing starts 
with a book and comes out of it. The facts antedate the 
book. 


In addition to this unbroken oral testimony, preserving 
it, indeed, in its original form, we have the documents of 
the New Testament; the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, 
Luke, and John, the Acts of the Apostles, and the various 
epistles. 


It is quite common for those who are not Christians to 
assume that these writings are accepted by Christians 
thoughtlessly, by a kind of superstition, which demands 
of men that the Bible shall be received as the Word of 
God, without any candid inquiry. This is very far from 
being true. Certainly there are Christian people enough 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH De 


who do accept the Bible as true upon the authority of their 
pastors and teachers (just as men accept authority in 
science and history) without being qualified to examine 
the facts for themselves. Such people find for themselves 
a subjective ground of faith through the appeal which the 
Holy Scriptures make to their spiritual natures. Nor is 
this sort of evidence to be despised. It is not valid for 
those who have not the same experience, but that does not 
destroy its validity for those who enjoy it. 


The Christian church as such, however, did not at the 
first accept, and does not now continue to accept, the 
documents in question in any such way. At the very 
beginning they were received only as the result of the 
most careful scrutiny, because it was known from whom 
they emanated; and ever since that time they have been 
subject to the most minute and painstaking investigation. 
Great scholars have devoted their lives to collecting and 
comparing all the obtainable manuscripts. Every refer- 
ence to the New Testament books in the most ancient au- 
thors, and every other scrap of information from what- 
ever source, has been carefully treasured. One theory 
after another bearing on the time of composition, author- 
ship, etc., has been proposed and submitted to the test 
of evidence, especially within the past two or three 
generations. 


The result of all this rigidly scientific study has been 
that it is now more firmly established than ever that 
these books are genuine productions of the first century 
of the Christian era, written by the men whose names are 
attached to them, within a comparatively short time after 
the events they relate and refer to. There is still some 
dispute about the Gospel of John, the book of Revelation, 


28 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


and some of the minor epistles; but in the case of St. 
John’s gospel especially, the most recent scholarship is 
coming more and more into line with the older views. 
Whatever doubt remains does not affect the case 
materially. 


It is an independent question whether these writings 
-are true or false, but that we have contemporary docu- 
ments from which to glean our knowledge of Jesus Christ 
and early Christianity is no longer open to dispute. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 29 


Vil. 


WHY WE BELIEVE THE GOSPELS TELL 
THE TRUTH. 


I. 


OME ONE will say to us: “Let us admit that the gos- 
pels and epistles were written during the first cen- 
tury — what of it? People could make mistakes and 
could lie as well then as they can now, couldn’t they? 
What is to hinder our regarding these books as deliberate 
fiction, the work of designing priests, or at best as legends, 
perhaps believed by the people who wrote them down, 
but without any basis in fact?” 


Well, there is a great deal to hinder a man’s thinking 
such a thing, if he’s got some common sense, and will take 
the pains to inform himself about the matter. There 
weren't any “designing priests” to begin with. The Chris- 
tian priesthood, or ministry, was the result of this story, 
not the origin of it. There were Jewish priests, but the 
last thing they “designed” was that this story should be 
- believed. As for legend, the necessary conditions for the 
growth of legends did not exist. Legends are like mush- 
rooms, they grow best in the dark, out of stuff that has 
had time to decay. There was no such time, and there 
was too much light. The New Testament story began to 
be told against the most relentless opposition, at the very 
time and place of the alleged events, in the fierce light of 
the most pitiless publicity. That is not the way legends 
come into existence. 

As for the theory of deliberate lying, a man must be 
very ignorant, or very thoughtless, or both, to take any 
stock in it. 


30 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


The decisive answer to all such objections is that we 
need the facts related in the gospel documents to explain 
the course of history. It is on record that in the year 
64 A. D., during the reign of the Emperor Nero, there was 
a great fire in Rome, and the blame was laid on the Chris- 
tians, many of whom were put to death with cruel tor- 
tures. Now up to the death of the Emperor Augustus, in 
. 14A.D., no one anywhere appears to have heard of such 
people as “Christians”, or of what that title implies. 
Therefore, during that half century something very re- 
markable had certainly occurred. A new religion, built 
upon a most remarkable story, had arisen among the 
people of a distant province, had had time to reach Rome, 
and had so many converts in the imperial city as to make 
its adherents a convenient scapegoat in time of public 
calamity. 


Yet fifty years is not a long time. It is as far as we are 
now from the exciting political campaign in which Ruth- 
erford B. Hayes was elected (or at any rate became) the 
President of the United States, and many of us can re- 
member all about it. That is no length of time in which 
important and well-known facts can grow dim in the 
recollection of mankind. 


From the time of Nero on, every Emperor has trouble 
with the Christians, and repeatedly the whole strength of 
the Roman government is exerted to annihilate them, but 
in vain. In less than three hundred years the Emperor 
himself becomes a Christian, and the victory of Chris- 
tianity is complete. 


During these and the immediately succeeding centuries 
the Christians are everywhere; in China, where the Nes- 
torian tablet remains to this day; in India, where the 
church established by St. Thomas still survives; in Abys- 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 31 


sinia, where likewise the ancient church has maintained 
to this day its unbroken continuity; in all northern Africa, 
and to the distant islands of Great Britain. 


Now, as we have just said, you need the story told in 
the epistles and gospels to account for such a course of 
affairs. If that story is essentially true — if God did come 
to visit this earth at about that time — then you have an 
adequate cause. Indeed, in that case the question is more 
legitimate why the results have not been greater than why 
they have been so great. If, on the other hand, you deny 
the truth of that story, then you leave the whole course 
of the history hanging in the air. If no such man as Jesus 
ever lived, or if He was not the kind of person the gos- 
pels say He was, then what did happen? 


Something happened during that half century to alter 
the course of the world’s history, that much is dead sure. 
If not this, then what? 


Another reason why we believe the gospels to be true 
is because we can check them up at numerous points, and 
everywhere they stand the test. The story opens with 
the words: “In the days of Herod the King,” and the first 
thing we know this Herod orders all the male infants in 
Bethlehem murdered, because a council of scholars told 
him that the Messiah was to be born there. There is a 
whole group of points to be tested right here. 


Was there ever such a man as Herod? 
Was he king of Judea, and at that time? 


Was he the kind of man that would off-hand order a 
dozen babies’ throats to be cut? 


Were the political conditions such that he could do 
that without causing a revolution? 


oe THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


Was there such a group of scholars for him to consult? 
Would they be likely to give him such an answer? 
Where could they get that information? 

What did they mean by “Christ,” or “Messiah”? 


Was there any expectation, at that time, that such a 
person was about to be born? 


Here are nine questions, every one of which can be 
adequately answered from secular history outside the 
Bible. So it goes on almost every page of the New Testa- 
ment. The record fairly bristles with points of contact 
with contemporary history. As we read it, the names of 
kings, emperors, governors, official titles, descriptions of 
cities, climate, roads, voyages, and countries, with refer- 
ences to laws, customs, and geography, crowd upon us, 
challenging us to convict the writers of error or fraud if 
we can; and all yielding a united testimony to their truth- 
fulness and accuracy. When we find books so reliable 
in all points that can be checked up, it is only fair to be- 
lieve that they are equally so where such checking up is 
impossible. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 33 


VIII. 


WHY WE BELIEVE THE GOSPELS TELL 
THE TRUTH. 


If. 


NE OF THE most convincing proofs that the gospel 

story is neither legend nor deliberate fiction is found 

in the character of the story itself. Taking now all the 

New Testament documents together, consider what a 
story it is. 


They tell us of one whose coming was foretold long 
before his birth, and quote prophecy after prophecy to 
prove it. They speak of His having existed before the 
foundation of the world, of His being rich, yet becoming 
poor for our sakes, of His being in the form of God, and 
yet hiding His glory within the likeness of a man. They 
tell how He was born of a virgin, in the humblest sur- 
roundings, how He grew up as a carpenter’s son and lived 
by manual labor, yet how He presently stood forth as 
a teacher of the deepest things. They record for us what 
He said, and twenty centuries have agreed that “never 
man spake as this man”. They tell us what He did, and 
surely, if the things told of Him are true, He was. mighty 
in deeds as well as in words. They say that He was with- 
out sin, and yet was the associate and friend of sinful 
men and women, among whom He moved as a physician 
among his patients. He dared to make Himself equal 
with God, and yet the impression conveyed by His life 
was that of meekness and humility. The keenest minds 
of His day—equal to the keenest of any day—were arrayed 
against Him in debate, and they propounded the deepest 
questions, yet He was easily the victor. He was finally 


34 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


hounded to His death with the most malignant ferocity 
and betrayed by one of His intimate friends, yet the moral 
sublimity of His life was maintained to the end. He was 
dead and buried, and the Roman soldiers guarded His 
grave; yet He came forth, and left behind the empty 
sepulchre as the irrefutable proof of His living again. 


That is the story, and there is no other story like it 
in the whole wide world. 


Now if all this, or any great part of it, is legend, where 
and how did such a legend arise? Dr. Adolf Harnack 
gives us, as the fruit of exhaustive study, the following 
verdict: “We can now assert that during the years 30 to 
70 A. D., and on the soil of Palestine, more particularly 
in Jerusalem, this tradition (by which he means this story) 
as a whole took the essential form which it presents in 
its later development.” (“Luke the Physician,” p. vi of 
preface.) 


With such a verdict from the leading liberal historian 
of Germany, there can be no talk of “legend”. There was 
...no time for a legend to develop, and no such legend could 
grow up in the face of bitter opposition, in the very city 
where the events are alleged to have taken place, while 
the actors in the drama were still alive. 


Nor is the idea of fiction any more tenable. If some 
one invented the story, who was it? The man who could 
invent such a character as that of Jesus and could put 
such words into His lips would himself be as great as 
Jesus or greater. Who, then, was this remarkable writer 
of fiction? But wait! There would have to be more than 
one. The epistles were written before the gospels, and 
are absolutely indépendent of them—yet they present 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 35 


the same portrait of Christ. The three gospels of Matthew, 
Mark, and Luke have a large common element, yet there 
is enough new material in each to show that they are 
independent productions. Did a number of people 
separately imagine the same fiction, and successfully 
palm it off upon the public as fact? 


Moreover, did all the apostles agree to unite in this 
deception, even at the cost of their lives, and did they do 
all this lying in order to win men to honesty and virtue? 
A remarkable set of liars, surely, if any one can believe 
that to be true. 


We refrain from piling proof upon proof any further, 
lest it weary the reader. The fact is, it is impossible to 
think this thing through soberly without coming to the 
conclusion that these records are bona fide narratives of 
what the writers believed to be true, written very shortly 
after the events took place, by men having reliable sources 
of information; and that the events therefore took place, 
at least in the main, as here recorded. 


This much we ask every reader who is not yet a Chris- 
tian frankly to admit, or else to give himself some other 
more reasonable account of how the gospels and epistles 
came into existence—which we are sure he cannot do. 


Of course, the full Christian belief goes a great deal 
further. Most Christians believe that these documents 
were not only written in good faith by men competent to 
know the facts, but that behind this human competence 
and good faith stood God Himself, guiding the writers in 
their choice of material, and in the form of its presenta- 
tion, so as to preserve them from error: either, as some 
would say, from any error at all in the original manu- 


36 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


scripts, or, as others would prefer to say, from any essen- 
tial or important error. Hence we call these documents 
inspired scriptures. 


Conviction of this kind, however, does not come from 
historical evidence, and we cannot ask it of any man who 
is still outside the Christian circle. Nor shall-we assume 
the inspiration of the Bible in these discussions. One 
step at a time is enough for us. If the reader will admit 
as much as is asked above—which we think is only fair— 
we shall have sufficient common ground to proceed with 
our study. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH od 


IX. 
THE PROMISE OF HIS COMING. 


NE THING is certainly true of all the great men that 
have ever appeared in the world—with one excep- 
tion—and that is that before they were born no one ex- 
pected them. Names like those of Moses, Plato, Confucius, 
Buddha, Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Kepler, Newton, 
and Louis Pasteur adorn the pages of history, and men 
treasure the memory of what they did: but of which of 
them all can it be said that either the world at large or 
any part of it was longing for and expecting his birth 
beforehand? 


A man’s personal history begins with his birth and 
ends with his death—with that one great exception of 
Jesus Christ. As the story of the gospels does not close 
when He was laid in the tomb, so it does not open when 
He was laid in the manger. Men then were waiting, and 
had already waited long, for His coming. When the 
angel announced the great event to the shepherds of 
Bethlehem in the words: “Unto you is born this day in 
the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord,” 
the name “Christ” was already familiar as the title of 
the Coming One. For this reason the angelic announce- 
ment was intelligible to those who heard it. 


This Messianic expectation preceding the birth of Jesus 
Christ ts one of the most unique, the most significant, and 
the most certain of all historical phenomena. 


It is unique, because it is found nowhere else, nor 


is anything remotely like it found anywhere else, in con-_~ 


nection with the birth of any other man. Much has been 
made of the parallels to the virgin birth alleged to exist 


38 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


in certain non-Christian religions. About these we may 
upon another occasion have something to say, but will 
any one dispute the uniqueness of the Messianic expecta- 
tion? Let some one find us, in connection with the birth 
of Gautama, or Confucius, or Mohammed, or any other 
great leader, religious or secular, some proof that before 


~~ he was born there was a general and eager expectation 


that some such person was about to appear. 

It is a significant fact because it is utterly beyond 
explanation on any other theory but that God cherished 
a great redemptive purpose, and was careful to prepare 
the minds of men, so that, when the fullness of time was 
come for His incarnation, He might not be altogether un- 
welcomed and unrecognized. Any other theory fails to 
account for the known facts. 

It is also one of the most certain, that is to say, one 
of the best attested facts in all human history that there 
actually was such an expectation. When Frederick the 
Great, thinking to embarrass a Christian nobleman at 
his court, asked him to give in the fewest possible words 
an argument for the truth of the Christian religion, he 
replied: “The Jews, your Majesty.” Certainly on this 
one crucial point the answer was pat. The Jews, to be 
sure, do not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, 
the long expected Messiah, but that the Messiah would 
surely come was their conviction long before Jesus was 
born, and that He will come has remained their hope 
and expectation for more than two thousand years. The 
very learned Oxford professor, Dr. Alfred Edersheim, 
himself a Jew who had accepted the Christian faith, gives 
in Appendix IX of his “Life and Times of Jesus the Mes- 
siah” a list of 456 Old Testament texts that are found to be 
. Messianically interpreted in the most ancient Rabbinical 
writings; and he is careful to state that the list is far from 
complete. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 39 


Now it is perfectly easy, of course, to take any one 
of these texts, or some of those so referred to in the 
New Testament, and to dispute the correctness of. the 
interpretation. But even if you convince yourself that 
YOU can not see any such meaning in them, and that 
other people are mistaken when they so understand them, 
what have you accomplished? The undisputed fact that 
such Messianic expectation existéd before the birth of 
Jesus remains and keeps staring you in the face. 

Since the purpose of genuine Messianic prophecy 
would be to create such an expectation, and since the 
expectation was in fact created, it is merely an academic 
amusement to carp at certain individual texts. More- 
over, the expectation had to be created in the minds of 
Jews in the period before Christ, not in our minds or 
in the minds of modern Jews. Whatever the means 
taken, whether they seem adequate to us or not, the end 
was achieved; and that remains a fact so unique, signifi- 
cant, and well attested that it rises like a mountain peak 
above the plain of ordinary human history—majestic, 
immovable. 

Two great questions cover the essentials of Messianic 
prophecy: (1) Was there such an expectation? (2) Is 
Jesus the fulfillment of that prophecy? 

The answer to the first is not in doubt and establishes 
the fact of Messianic prophecy. 

Very few among us except Jews will accept the fact 
of such prophecy and then look for the fulfillment any- 
where but in Jesus of Nazareth; and if there should be 
any Jews among the readers of this book, we venture 
respectfully to commend to them also the question 
whether it is not Jesus and He alone, among all the sons 
of men, who can possibly be thought of as meeting the 
requirements of the case. 

If not He, then who? 


40 . THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


X. 
PROPHECY AND FULFILLMENT. 


N THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER we have argued that the 
undisputed fact of the Messianic expectation before the 
birth of Jesus Christ is in itself sufficient to show that 
there was genuine Messianic prophecy; but it may be 
that some would like to have a few passages cited to show 
what such prophecy is like. In complying with this de- 
sire, we shall quote chiefly passages that have the broad- 
est possible sweep, and are most clearly fulfilled before 
our eyes, as the least open to any possible dispute. We 
shall show that the coming of a Messianic era was pro- 
phesied, and that this centers in Him. 


In Genesis 12:3, in connection with the calling of 
Abraham by God, which furnishes the starting-point of all 
Jewish and Christian development, we read the following 
words: “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed”. 
This promise is repeated three times to Abraham (Gene- 
sis 12: 3; 18: 18; 22: 18), once to Isaac (26: 4), and once to 
Jacob (28: 14), no less than five times in all. The form 
in which it is most commonly referred to is that used to 
Jacob: 


“Tn thee and in thy seed shall all the families 
of the earth be blessed’’. 


There is no other promise so great as this. It forms the 
keynote of Israel’s history and is a forecast of the gospel, 
in which sense it is twice quoted in the New Testament 
(Acts 3:25 and Galatians 3:8). In Ephesians 2:12 it 
is referred to as “THE PROMISE”. 


There is no possible doubt about the antiquity of this 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 41 


great promise. All questions as to the date or authorship 
of Genesis aside, the book is known to have been trans- 
lated into Greek fully two hundred years before Christ, 
which is antiquity enough for our purpose. It contained 
then already the assurance that through the descendants 
or a descendant of Abraham there should come a blessing 
to “all the families of the earth’. In these America must 
be included, and if the prophecy has been fulfilled we 
have a right to expect that it has been fulfilled right among 
us, as well as elsewhere. That it has been so fulfilled is abun- 
dantly clear to any one who can appreciate the blessings 
of Christian civilization. The danger here is that we shall 
fail to see how much we owe to the coming of Christ, just 
because we have grown so accustomed to these blessings 
that they seem commonplace to us. It takes a little study 
of pre-Christian civilizations or of conditions today in 
non-Christian countries to bring that out. Should any one 
desire to be shown in detail what Christ has meant to our 
race, let him read such works as Gesta Christi, by C. Lor- 
ing Brace, or, The Divine Origin of Christianity Shown 
By Its Historical Results, by Dr. Richard Storrs. Should he 
further wish to know whether these blessings are being ex- 
tended to all nations, and how great is the revolution thus 
wrought in the social life of great and ancient races in our 
own day, we commend to him the three massive volumes of | 
Dr. Dennis, Christian Missions and Social Progress. If he 
reads these books, let him remember all the time that the 
outward blessings that can be thus catalogued and de- 
scribed are but the outward and visible results of an in- 
ward change in which the heart of the matter is found. 


Another noteworthy Messianic prophecy is the 
following: 


42 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


“Tt is too light a thing that thou shouldest be 
my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to 
restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give 
thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest 
be my salvation to the ends of the earth’. 
(Isaiah 49: 6.) 

No one can doubt that this has come to pass. Light and 
salvation have come to the Gentiles, that is, to those not 
of Jewish blood, through Jesus Christ. Our fathers lived 
as heathen in northern Europe. They worshipped Woden 
and Thor, and offered human sacrifices. That we do not 
today is a debt we owe to Christ. The prophecy has been 
fulfilled in Christ, and in Him alone. 


Other similar prophecies are found in Isaiah 25: 7, 
Micah 4: 2 and 3, Isaiah 2:18 and 20. In these passages, 
and in many more like them, it is clearly foretold that the 
time is to come when idolatry shall lose its hold on men, 
and that this movement, which is to make monotheism 
universal, will take its rise from Jerusalem. This has 
come to pass. Centuries, indeed, elapsed before the 
prophecy seemed likely to come true; but with the coming 
of Jesus Christ into the world, the fulfillment began, and 
it has been going on ever since. Japan is now the only 
considerable nation in the world that is officially and 
avowedly polytheistic. Everywhere the gods of heath- 
enism are passing away. The era of Jehovah has come, as 
foretold, and it has come to pass through Jesus of 
Nazareth. 


If you desire a definite prediction of His birth, let this 
one suffice, which the Jewish scholars quoted to Herod 
the Great: 


“But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, which art 
little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of 
thee shall one come forth unto me that is to be 
ruler of Israel, whose goings forth are from of 
old, from everlasting”. (Micah 5: 2.) 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 43 


In the same connection is a prediction not yet 
fulfilled: 


“They shall beat their swords into plowshares, 
and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall 
not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they 
learn war any more’’. (Micah 4:3.). 


This has not yet come to pass, but a man must be blind 
not to see, on the one hand, that events are shaping them- 
selves towards this end, and, on the other, that the influ- 
ences brought into the world through Jesus Christ offer 
the only hope of a warless world. 


The development of history is following the prophetic 
program, and at the center of it all stands Jesus Christ, in 
Whom and through Whom all the prophecies have their 
fulfillment. 


44 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


We 


XI. 
WHY DID GOD COME? 


HE CENTRAL MESSAGE of the Christian religion is 
the incarnation, the good news that God once came 
to visit us in this world, which has made the world a 
different place ever since. 
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, 
full of grace and truth”. 

So great an event as the coming of God into human 
life requires a great purpose. We can believe that such a 
thing actually took place only if we can see an adequate 
reason for it; some desperate need that only such an incar- 
nation could meet, some terrible danger that only this 
event could avert, or some measureless good that only 
God, humbling Himself to become man, could achieve. 


It requires also a motive of overwhelming strength, 
holiness, and dignity; a motive worthy enough and great 
enough to move to such a deed Him who sits on the throne 
of the universe, the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the 
only-wise God, dwelling in the light which no man can 
approach unto. 


In a passage of surpassing beauty the Saviour Himself 
has set all this before us: 


“For God so loved the world that He gave His 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
Him should not perish but have everlasting life’’. 

This is an epitome of the gospel, its inmost essence 
stated in the simplest words. Not for nothing has this 
text always held the foremost place in the affections of 
Christian people, among all the precious passages of the 
Holy Scriptures. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 45 


Here is the incarnation. God sent His only begotten 
Son into the world. Notice the word “only-begotten’. 
No other man was ever born as Jesus was, by the direct 
and wondrous act of God, enabling a virgin to bear a 
child; and this was but the physical corollary of a still 
more wondrous “begetting” before the world was. 


God not only sent His Son into the world, He “gave” 
Him. Just wherein this “giving” consisted is not here 
said; we learn to understand it only in the light of the 
cross; but here already it is clear that it means some great 
sacrifice for God, something very hard and painful for 
Him to do, but done nevertheless for the saving of 
mankind. 


Here also we find the great motive needed to render 
such a story credible: “For God so loved the world”. 
That is the only motive exalted enough to move God to 
such a sacrifice. 


Finally, here is the great purpose: “That whosoever 
believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting 
life”. 

What do these things mean? We shall try to answer 
that question in our next chapter. There is a dread and 
terrible mystery involved in this sweetest of all gospel 
texts, and to offset its darkness there is a gleam of celes- 
tial light. There was, indeed, an impending danger to 
avert, a measureless good to be achieved or God would 
not have sent His Son. 


Some people speak of this text as “the simple gospel”. 
They say they are tired of theology, and wish that the 
churches would confine themselves to the simple gospel ~ 
of John 3:16. They are partly right; this is, indeed, the 
simple gospel. A child can learn the words and under- 


46 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


stand their meaning to a very good degree. This text 
can never be preached too much if men will only preach 
all of it, but if you mean by “simple” a thing that is not 
complex, then this text is not so simple as it looks. 


It is like a ray of light. The sunshine is clear, pure, 
and simple, in the sense that it does not appear complex. 
Yet it is —it is one of the most complicated things in the 
world, when you come to study it. Pass it through a 
prism and it breaks into the seven primary colors; look 
at it with the spectroscope and it tells a surprising tale of 
the elements at the heart of the sun; learn the chemical 
and medicinal effects of the violet and ultra violet rays, 
and you find to your astonishment that it is the most 
powerful disinfectant known, with medicinal power to 
cure some of the most stubborn diseases; study it, finally, 
from the standpoint of physics and you are face to face 
with the ultimate problem of matter and force. Simple? 
Oh, certainly, what is so simple as a ray of light? But 
complex also, as if the complexity of the universe were 
concentrated in it. 


So it is with the sixteenth verse of the third chapter of 
St. John’s gospel. Let the darkened heart find here its 
light, the burdened heart its relief, the despairing heart its 
hope; but those who hate the profound and the complex 
in religion will find this text an uncommonly bad choice. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 47 


XI. 
HELL. 


¢¢W7S THERE A HELL? I should worry! Why, the 
preachers themselves don’t believe it any more. That 
bunk is out of date”. 


This is about the way many a man will talk about the 
subject of eternal punishment. Does he really think that 
such a subject can be disposed of in such a way, or is he 
simply incredibly incapable of sober thinking? 


Neither, the man is bluffing. He talks that way with 
his mouth because he is afraid in his heart. If he believed 
what he says, he would dismiss the matter from his 
thoughts. Alas, there are some men who do that! 


The word “Hell” has been so debased by superstition 
and cheapened by profanity, that one hesitates to use it, 
and yet it is an indispensable word; for the English lan- 
guage contains no other that tersely and clearly sets forth 
the essential thought involved—that of a just and terrible 
retribution in the future life for the man who persists in 
defying the moral law. 


This is a thought inseparable from the gospel of 
Christ; indeed, unless this conception is vividly present in 
the mind, one cannot understand what the gospel is all 
about, or what Jesus came to do. We would like to pass 
this whole subject over without discussion, or to soften to 
some extent what must be said, but it would not be right. 
One might as well undertake to discuss medicine without 
the mention of disease as to tell the old, old story of Jesus 
Christ and His salvation without making clear what men 
are to be saved from. | 


48 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all 
acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world 
to save sinners”’. 


To save them from what? From two things: from the 
consequences of sin, and from the sin itself. 


It is an essential element in Christian teaching that the 
soul of man is a separate thing from his body, and that 
when the body dies the soul remains in conscious being, 
capable of knowing, willing, loving, hating, suffering, and 
rejoicing. Also that the soul of every man will eventually 
be reunited to his body, after which the permanent state 
of that man begins, but that even before this resurrection 
takes place, the soul is in a conscious state of enjoyment 
or misery. We believe that the condition of the soul after 
death is fixed according to the deeds done in the body, 
except where the salvation of Christ intervenes. Upon his 
own merits we believe that no man can stand before God 
in judgment and be justified, and that therefore all who 
have not laid hold upon the salvation provided in Jesus 
Christ can, in view of their sins, expect nothing but to 
suffer a well-deserved retribution of mysterious but ter- 
rible import. We believe, finally, that when once this 
permanent state of conscious suffering is entered upon, 
there remains no hope that it will cease or change, be- 
cause the moral foulness that brought the soul to that 
condition no longer can be cleansed away. 


This is a terrible thing to believe, and no man would 
believe it if he could help it. Yet it has been the faith of 
the Church from the beginning, and is held today, with in- 
considerable exceptions, by all who bear the Christian 
name. 


Moreover, this belief, terrible as it is, comes to us 
straight from Jesus Christ Himself. He, more than any 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 


49 


one else, has drawn aside the veil of the future, and has 
shown us things from which the mind of man recoils in 


horror. 


The following words are His: 


“So shall it be at the end of the world; the 
angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from 
among the just, and shall cast them into the fur- 
naee of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing 
of teeth’. (Matthew 13: 49, 50.) 


“Fear not them which kill the body, but are 
not able to kill the soul, but fear him which is 
able to destroy both soul and body in hell’. (Mat- 
thew 10: 28.) 


“Then shall He say to them on the left hand: 
Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, 
prepared for the devil and his angels”. (Mat.- 
thew 25: 41.) 


‘‘And these shall go away into everlasting pun- 
ishment, but the righteous into life eternal’. 
(Matthew 25: 46.) 


“He that shall blaspheme against the Holy 
Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of 
eternal damnation”. (Mark 3: 29.) 


“But the children of the kingdom shall be cast 
out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping 
and gnashing of teeth’. (Matthew 8:12.) 


“Tf thine eye offend thee, pluck it out; it is 
better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God 
with one eye than, having two eyes, to be cast 
into hell fire, where the worm dieth not and the 
fire is not quenched”. (Mark 9:47, 48.) 


“The rich man also died, and was buried, and 
in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments”. 
(Luke 16: 22, 23.) 


These are only a few of the sayings of Jesus that might 
be quoted. From the lips of no one else whose words are 
recorded in the Bible have such warnings proceeded. The 
apostles show continually by their manner of speech that 


50 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


they write under the burden of the knowledge that judg- 
ment is impending for all who persist in sin, but they seem 
to shrink from putting what they dread distinctly into 
words. It would be well if their discretion had been fol- 
lowed by those who came after them. 


Much ingenuity has been expended upon these words 
of Christ to make them mean something less than they 
seem to say, but in vain. That the form is that of parables 
is clear, but the essence of the teaching is also clear. “The 
outer darkness”, “The fire that is not quenched”, “The 
worm that dieth not”, etc., are symbols, not literal real- 
ities, but they are symbols of spiritual realities that are 
more terrible than their symbols, not less so. 


We are dumb in the presence of such things as these; 
we know not what to say, but we do know this, that the 
churches will have to turn their backs upon Jesus Christ 
and shut their ears to His voice before they can cease to 
warn men to flee from the wrath to come. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 51 


XIII. 
THE JUDGMENT DAY. 


“Rejoice, o young men, in thy youth, and let 
thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and . 
walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of 
thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these 
things God will bring thee into judgment”. (Ec- 
clesiastes 11: 9.) 


“For God shall bring every work into judg- 
ment, with every secret thing, whether it be good 
or whether it be evil’. (Ecclesiastes 12:14.) 


‘Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” 
(Genesis 18: 25.) 


“But I say unto you, that every idle word that 
men shall speak, they shall give an account there- 
of in the day of judgment’. (Matthew 12: 36.) 


“Because He hath appointed a day, in the 
which He will judge the world in righteousness, 
by that man whom He hath ordained’. (Acts 
Mol) 


‘And I saw the dead, small and great, stand 
before God, and the books were opened; and an- 
other book was opened, which is the book of life, 
and the dead were judged out of those things 
which were written in the books, according to 
their works”. (Revelation 20: 12.) 


“It is appointed unto men once to die, but 
after that the judgment’. (Hebrews 9: 27.) 


O IT IS WRITTEN; so it must needs be. The moral 
sense of mankind demands a judgment-day; all the - 
oppression, and tears, and wickedness that have cursed 
the earth since the beginning of time, cry out for it. Un- 
less there is a judgment-day conscience isa lie. If there is 
a God there must be a judgment-day, for if there were a 
God and no judgment-day, there might as well be no God 


52 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


at all. If the time ever comes when the generality of man- 
kind persuade themselves that there is no God and no 
judgment-day, the moral cement that binds men together 
in families and nations will give way, and red ruin will 
mark the end. If there is no God and no judgment-day, 
what better are we than brutish beasts? In that case the 
best thing in the world is to eat three square meals a day, 
to have a jolly good time while it lasts, and to let suicide 
crown a wasted life. 


“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”. 
“Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for 
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”. 

Our moral instincts are the most certain things we 
know, and the judgment-day is but the future reality of 
which we already carry about in our own hearts the 
guarantee. 


The reader will perceive that we are not much influ- 
enced by the talk of some to the effect that it is unworthy 
to appeal to fear of the judgment and of hell. If these 
things are not realities to him let no man appeal to them; 
but we who do believe in them are not ashamed to say 
that the fear of them has been a power in our hearts, and 
we wish we could make it so in the hearts of all. What is 
there so unworthy about fear that we may not appeal to it 
or be influenced by it? 


Fear is the apprehension of coming disaster, leading to 
a resolute attempt to escape it. The ox, the fool, the idiot 
have no fear, because they have not brains enough to be 
afraid. We sometimes hear it said of a man as if it were 
a compliment: “He does not know what fear is”. Hap- 
pily it is not true, but if it were, the man would be a most 
undesirable citizen. We have need of fear and we appeal 
to it in every relation of life; in the restraint of crime, in 
the training of children, in traffic regulations, in medicine 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH Do 


and hygiene. For fear of smallpox we vaccinate, for fear 
of yellow fever we exterminate mosquitoes, for fear of 
fire we have firemen, fire fighting apparatus, and fire in- 
surance, for fear of burglars we lock our doors at night, 
for fear of invasion we have armies and navies, for fear 


of accident every automobile driver is keenly on the alert 


—and shall religion be the only department of life where 
fear is out of place? 

Men say to us with some contempt: “Do you suppose 
the fear of hell ever drove any man to heaven? Would 
you have men lead the Christian life in cringing fear, as 
slaves work under the lash’? 

No, and there is no danger that they will. No man will 
ever lead the Christian life or enter the gates of heaven 
simply because he is afraid of hell. Before he ever gets 
that far, other and higher motives must do their work on 
him. But for all that, we know that the fear of the judg- 
ment-day and of what lies beyond it has sobered many a 
man,has checked him in a life of sin and has caused him to 
cry out: “What must I do to be saved”? Fear is not the 
final motive, it is only the beginning, but it is a good begin- 
ning! Presently it passes away in the sense of acceptance 
with God, of delight in His ways, and of boundless grati- 
tude for His salvation. Then comes to pass what is 
written: 


“There is no fear in love; but perfect love 
casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He 
that feareth is not made perfect in love’. 
(1 John 4:18.) 


Fear is but the primary grade in God’s school, yet it is a 
good place to start; for most men the only place they ever 
do start. So, unashamed and soberly, we ask our readers 
who never yet have given these matters earnest thought, 
to take up, in the quiet of their own hearts, the great ques- 
tion whether they have not cause to fear the judgment- 
day; whether they are ready to meet their God. 


Pa 


o4 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XIV. 
DELIVERANCE FROM SIN. ~ 


“Thou shalt call His name ‘Jesus’, for He shall 
save His people from their sins’. 


HESE WORDS were spoken by an angel to Joseph be- 
fore the birth of Christ. The word “Jesus” means 
“Saviour”, and He bears it because He saves men from 
sin, not merely from the consequences of sin—hell and the 
judgment—but from sin itself. 


Sin is a very great thing, and has many aspects. One 
of these is the legal one. Sin is the transgression of the 
law of God, and the violation of law involves judgment 
and penalty. We think of this aspect when we discuss 
hell and the judgment. 


Another aspect of it is as something within the man 
himself that lies back of this violation of the law, a cor- 
ruption of his nature, a power for evil resident within him 
that has power over him. You may call it a disease: then 
it is like an incurable, filthy, loathsome disease of the 
blood that appears in various parts of the body to cause 
rottenness of the bones and tissues. You may think of it 
as a tyrant within him, holding him in cruel bondage from 
which he fain would escape but cannot; like the drug habit 
that enslaves a man without destroying his perception of 
what is going to happen, so that the unhappy victim goes 
on open-eyed to perdition. 


Is there such a thing as this in man? Alas, there is! 
In every man? In every one. 


The writer was once in an asylum for lepers and saw 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 5D 


there among the patients some in whom he could perceive 
no trace of the disease. So he asked the director why these 
men were there. “Because they are lepers’, was the reply. 
“But one cannot see iton them”. “No, because they are in 
the first stages, but they are lepers like the rest, a leper is 
a leper, though not all are loathsome in appearance”. 


So it is with sin. There are those in whom it appears 
openly, so that men turn away their faces in disgust, and 
there are others fair to look upon, but the disease of sin is 
there. The expression, “moral leper’, is often used of a 
certain kind of sin. It is not in that sense, but in the sense 
of sin in general that we wish we could burn into every 
person who reads these words the deep conviction that he 
is a moral leper, suffering spiritually from the terrible and 
loathsome disease which we call sin, for which there is no 
cure except in Jesus Christ. He has come to save men 
from sin. 


If you think of sin as an enslaving power, these words 
of the apostle Paul will fit: 


“T am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I 
do I allow not; for what I would, that I do not; 
but what I hate, that do I... For to will is 
present with me, but how to perform that which 
is good I find not; for the good which I would I do 
not, but the evil which I would not, that Ido. Oh 
wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me 
from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:14, 
15,.19; 24.) 


Immediately he answers his own question with the joy- 
ful outcry: “I thank God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord”. 
In another place he says: “I live, yet not I, but Christ 
liveth in me and the life that I now live in the flesh I live 
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave 
Himself for me”. (Galatians 2: 20.) Paul had experience 


56 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


’ of the fact that Jesus Christ delivers men from sin, not 
merely from its guilt and penalty, but from its power. 


If this experience of Paul’s were not “repeatable” to- 
day it would mean but little to us, but it is being repeated 
all the time. Through faith in Christ to this very day 
drunkards become sober, lustful people chaste, quick- 
tempered people patient, dishonest people honest, selfish 
people unselfish, hard, cold, loveless people full of com- 
passion and sympathy. Every sort of evil is being over- 
come in men’s hearts and lives. This is taking place 
wherever the Gospel is faithfully preached, and any one 
desiring proof can find numerous instances of it in every 
community. If testimony can prove anything it estab- 
lishes this, that Jesus Christ redeems men from the power 
of sin. 


We wish to add our own testimony. We do not believe 
in what is called “sinless perfection” in this life, and make 
no claim to have attained such a state, but we do praise 
God that we are no longer under the bondage of sin, that 
Christ has given us the power to hate sin and to gain 
the victory over it. 


This experience is an important part of salvation; nay, 
more, it is salvation. Without it deliverance from hell 
and the judgment (supposing such a thing to be possible) 
would be but a small and doubtful blessing. Jf a man 
thinks he is a Christian, and has not to any degree experi- 
enced this deliverance; if he is as lustful, selfish, covetous, 
insincere, hard, unloving, as little able to control his tem- 
per or his tongue, as he was.before, then he is deceiving 
himself. He may have accepted a system of religion, he 
has not accepted Christ. 


This power of Jesus Christ to save men from the bond- 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 57 


age of sin is the supreme evidence of Christianity. When 
Jesus was upon earth, upon one occasion a man sick of 
the palsy was brought to Him. Jesus said to him: “Son, 
be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee”, but nothing 
happened. The man lay there apparently as helpless as 
before. Then some of the bystanders murmured, saying: 
“Who can forgive sins but God alone”? Therefore Jesus 
went on to say to the sick man: “Arise, take up thy bed 
and walk’. The man did so, and the doubters had no 
more to say. That Christ could bestow upon him the abil- 
ity to walk was sufficient proof that He could forgive 
his sins. 

So it is now, so it must be always. We trust in Christ 
to save us in the judgment day, but that faith would 
amount to very little if He were not now saying us from 
the bondage of sin. 


58 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XV. 
THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 


‘“‘And he spake this parable unto certain which 
trusted in themselves that they were righteous, 
and despised others. Two men went up into the 
temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other 
a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus 
with himself: ‘God, I thank Thee, that I am not 
as other men are, extortioners, unjust, or even as 
this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give 
tithes of all that I possess’. 

‘‘And the publican, standing afar off, could not 
lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote 
upon his breast saying: ‘God, be merciful to me, 
a sinner’. 


“T tell you, this man went down to his house 
justified rather than the other’. (Luke 18:10-14). 


XCEPT for the temple and the local color, this story 
would fit Grand Rapids as well as Jerusalem. These 
types are found everywhere, and between them they in- 
clude all mankind. The Pharisee represents people who 
are pretty well satisfied with themselves. They are not 
worrying about their sins; why should they? They live 
uprightly, obey the laws, pay their debts and give gener- 
ously to charity. What more is wanted? If anything, the 
Almighty is under obligations to them for being as decent 
as they are. If there is a hell it is for other people, if 
there is a judgment-day, “What judgment shall they fear, 
doing no wrong”? They take pleasure in comparing 
themselves with professing Christians of their acquaint- 
ance, to the disadavantage of the latter. ‘They differ, to 
be sure, from the Pharisee in the parable in that they do 
..not thank God that they are better than “this Christian”, 
they thank themselves; but for the rest their attitude is 
much the same. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH a9 


We bring no railing accusation against the Pharisee. 
The one in the parable was very likely, like many of his 
modern counterparts, a very estimable and highly re- 
spectable gentleman, charming in social intercourse, 
generous and modest in all human relations. Only, he 
was blind as a bat to his own spiritual condition and 
ignorant of his true standing before God. 


With people like this the gospel falls on deaf ears. 
They are willing to support the City Mission and the Sal- 
vation Army, for they can see that religion is a good thing 
for the down-and-outers, the drunks, the fallen women, 
and the dwellers in the slums; but for themselves they 
feel no more need of it than a healthy man feels the need 
of medicine. 


By a very curious perversion of thought many people 
associate the idea of a “Pharisee” with being a professing 
Christian. No doubt there are Pharisees in the churches, 
but they do not belong there. When a man makes con- 
fession of faith and becomes a full communicant member | 
of the church—any church—he takes the position of the 
Publican, not of the Pharisee. He begins by publicly 
confessing himself a sinner and in need of God’s mercy 
for salvation. If the angel Gabriel should wish to join one 
of our churches he could not do it—he is too good. He 
could not be a Roman Catholic because he could not go to 
confession, and he could not be a Protestant because he 
could not answer the questions put publicly to every can- 
didate for admission. No man is so vile as to be unwel- 
come in the church if only he will confess his sins and for- 
sake them; but no angel or self-satisfied Pharisee need 
apply. If any such get in it is by fraud or error. 


The Pharisees are therefore mostly to be found outside 
the church, not inside. Nor does the Christian answer 


60 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


back that he is glad he is not “like this Pharisee”. If he is 
a true Christian he is too deeply impressed with his own 
lost and sinful condition to compare himself with other 
men. He takes as his own the words of Paul: “This is a 
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus 
Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am 
chief’. He seeks the salvation of Christ because he 
knows he is too vile to save himself, just as a sick man 
seeks a doctor. Herein is fulfilled that saying of Jesus: 


“They that are whole have no need of the 
physician, but they that are sick. I came not to 
call the righteous but sinners to repentance’”’. 


Evidently, however, Jesus had not the least idea of 
conceding the Pharisee’s claim to righteousness. He said: 
“I tell you this man (the Publican) went down to his 
house justified rather than the other”. They were both 
sick with the same disease, tarred with the same brush; 
the only difference was that the Publican knew it, and the 
Pharisee didn’t. 


Jesus repeatedly made it clear that He had no sort of 
confidence in human goodness. To a man who saluted 
Him as “Good Master”, Jesus said (knowing that the man 
had no real understanding of who He was), “Why callest 
thou Me good? There is none good save one, that is God”. 
To His disciples—who were pretty decent men—He said, 
“If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to 
your children”, etc. When discussing certain men who 
had met with calamity, He said: “Think ye that these 
men were sinners above all Galileans? I tell you nay, but 
unless ye repent ye shall all likewise perish’. That is to 
say, all men richly deserve to meet with punishment, and 
most certainly will meet it some time, somewhere, unless 
they repent. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 61 


This difference between the Pharisee and the Publican 
explains why it is so difficult to get men to believe the 
gospel. Christianity is the story of how God, in His in- 
finite mercy, humbled Himself to become man, and dwelt 
among us in the person of Jesus Christ for our redemp- 
tion. To the Pharisee this is incredible, for he sees no 
emergency requiring it. To the Publican, on the other 
hand, it is a great message, for in this alone does he find 
ground of hope. 


Are you a Pharisee or a Publican? 


62 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XVI. 
EVERLASTING LIFE. 


“Ror God so loved the world that He gave His 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on 
Him should not perish but have eternal life’’. 


HERE is there any guarantee of a future life? It is 

here, in this whole story of how God sent His Son 

into the world to save men. If this gospel story is true, 

if God, in the person of His Son, once came to earth to 

save sinful men, then, of course, He is pledged to save to 

the uttermost those whom Jesus Christ has redeemed. If 

this whole gospel story is not true—well, then it is a differ- 
ent matter. 


Christ came into the world to save men from sin; from 
the penalty of sin, the judgment which a holy God is 
bound by every consideration of honor and duty to bring 
upon it, and from the sin itself, from the corruption and 
bondage of it. 


Now, where salvation from these is found, eternal life 
follows as a matter of course. 


Did you ever stop to think why God made the world? 
Have you thought He made it as a kind of toy to amuse 
Himself with? Surely there must have been a higher 
reason than that. Since God is love, what motive would 
be worthy of Him but to be loved? Being love, God’s 
great passion is to have some one love Him. Now love is 
a thing that cannot arise unless there is some one who can 
love, and who does love, not as something forced, but 
freely. If God had a longing to be loved, the only way 
open to Him to secure it was to create a being capable 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 63 


of loving Him and then to lavish His own love upon him 
until that creature, perceiving how God loved him and 
how altogether lovable God is, began to love Him in 
return. 


That seems to have been, so far as we can reverently 
trace it, about the way God came to make this world. 
Of course, in all this we are using human forms of speech, 
but we can not help that. God was, so to speak, hungry 
to be loved, and so He made the world. 


Having made the world, He filled it with all good and 
beautiful things, and finally He made man, that in this 
home he might be taught to love his Creator. By the 
beauty and blessings of nature, and by such fellowship as 
- was suited to his moral and spiritual condition, God set 
Himself to woo man to love Him; and if this had suc- 
ceeded, without the intervention of sin, the lot of man 
would have been glorious and happy beyond anything we 
can now conceive. 


Man, however, turned away from God and sought an 


object of love in the creation rather than in his Creator.~~ 


That set the whole thing upside down. What had been 
made to help God’s wooing had become His rival—as it 
remains in the hearts of most men to this very day. Hence 
there came death into the world; man became justly liable 
to the penalty of the broken law, and the entire divine 
program of creation was threatened with utter failure. 


This was the tragic situation that caused God to “give” 
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him 
should not “perish”, but have eternal life. They have 
eternal life, because that is what they were intended from 
the first to have, and because the evil that prevented them 
from everlasting fellowship with God has been taken 
away. 


64 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


Much has been written from the standpoint of philoso- 
phy about the immortality of the soul, and we would not 
undervalue the arguments that have so often helped to 
sustain faith; but to us the supreme argument is the rela- - 
tion of the saved man to the eternal God. If there is no 
living and eternal God, then we are not much impressed 
with arguments for survival, and see but little that is de- 
sirable in immortality; but if there is an eternal Father, 
and we are His, then nothing but everlasting life is 
conceivable. 


This is the clinching argument Christ used with the 
Sadducees. 


“Now that the dead are raised, even Moses 
showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the 
God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the 
God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, 
but of the living: for all live unto him’.— 
(Luke 20: 37, 38.) 


Saved men are men with whom God has re-established 
friendly relations, men who have learned to give Him 
what He prizes most, their love and trust. Hoping to get 
this very thing He made the world, and when sin seemed 
likely to frustrate this great purpose, it was to get this very 
thing—men who would love and trust Him—that He sent 
His Son into the world. Having now obtained them, at the 
cost not only of creation, but also of redemption, is it con- 
ceivable that He will let them go? Death can enter any 
home no matter how carefully guarded, and snatch a babe 
from the arms of a loving father, but shall there be also 
infant mortality among the children of God? 


When an almighty God has at last found men to love 
and trust Him, the very kind of men for whom He laid the 
foundations of the earth in the ages long ago, there would 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 65 


have to be something stronger than the Almighty and 
more lasting than the Eternal ever to deprive Him of 
them. The everlasting life of God’s children is a corollary 
of the eternity of God Himself. Hence we have such 
jubilant utterances as this: 


“T give unto them eternal life, and they shall 
never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of 
My hand. My Father, who hath given them unto 
Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch 
them out of the Father’s hand’’. (John 10: 28, 29.) 

“For I am persuaded, that neither death nor 
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things pres- 
ent, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, 
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able 
to separate us from the love of God, which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord’. (Romans 8: 38, 39.) 


66 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XVII. 
GOD LOVES THE WORLD. 


66 OD so loved the world”—that is the greatest asser- 
tion that ever fell from human lips, the most dar- 
ing, the broadest in its sweep, the deepest in its meaning. 


It probably means more than that God loved all the 
people in the world. The Greek word used here is Cos- 
mos, which we have adopted into the English language 
as indicating the totality of all created things. Perhaps 
it is used here in this broad sense. If so, it would seem 
that the fate of God’s universe in some way hung in the 
balance on account of human sin, and that to save the 
cosmos from utter ruin, God sent His Son to grapple with 
that problem; but if this be thought to be too mystical a 
speculation, we shall not press the point. 


It certainly means at least this, that God loves all men, 
and out of love to them sent them a Saviour. It may mean 
more than that; it can not mean less. 


No sentence was ever penned based upon a loftier con- 
ception of the value of every human soul. This is one of 
the paradoxes of the gospel. On the one hand it humbles 
man into the dust. Christ says of men—all men—that 
they are evil, utterly unworthy, justly liable to the judg- 
ment of eternal fire; and yet, on the other hand, the same 
gospel exalts man to the skies, for if God loves him and 
thinks it worth His while to come from heaven to save 
him, by what measure shall we estimate man’s value? 
Surely, God would not do that to save a clod, dust that for 
a moment is, and then returns to dust. 


And now think of it, let your mind dwell on it, that this 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 67 


means you and me and every man, woman, and child now 
in the world, or that ever has been in the world or ever 
will be. It is no wonder that men have been staggered by 
it, and instead of accepting it as it stands, have sought to 
attach some limitation, such as that the “world” must be 
understood here to mean the world of the elect, or of those 
of whom God foreknew that they would accept the mes- 
sage of salvation; but the passage will not admit of such 
treatment without landing us in absurdities. Let us try, 
for a moment, to substitute such an expression for that 
used in the text. Then we have the following: 


“God so loved those whom He foreknew (the 
elect) that He gave His only begotten Son, that 
whosoever (of the elect) believeth on Him should 
not perish, but have eternal life’’. 


This leaves us with some of the elect who do not be- 
lieve and who do perish, which will never do in the world! 
No, indeed, there is no discount on this glorious passage, 
“God so loved the world’—all men in it, and loves it still, 
for God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 


Do you believe that? Dare you believe it? It is indeed 
a gracious message. It is like music to the soul, “that 
gentlier on the spirit lies, than tired eyelids upon tired 
eyes”. But it is not so very easy to believe. It seems 
incredible, on the one hand, because the world is so very 
unlovely, and, on the other hand, because if God loves it, 
then why is it such a world? 


The fallen and sinful world is so unlovable, even in 
our eyes, that it seems impossible a holy God should love 
it. If one remembers how little we see of its wickedness, 
and that God sees every secret thing, even the thoughts 
and intents of the heart, the case grows worse and worse. 
Think of all the pride, malice, envy, lust, meanness, lying, 


68 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


slander, oppression, murder, hatred, filthiness of con- 
versation, thought and conduct; and of all the other vile 
and wicked things in the world, known and unknown, 
open and hidden; and then set yourself to grasp the idea 
that in spite of all this a holy God loves this cesspool of 
iniquity we call “the world”. Can we believe it? We can 
not unless we catch the meaning of the great words of 

God, spoken by the mouth of the prophet Isaiah: | 


“Let the wicked forsake his way and the un- 
righteous man his thoughts, and let him return 
unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him, 
and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon; 
for (get the force of that ‘for’) My thoughts are 
not your thoughts neither are your ways My ways, 
saith the Lord, for as the heavens are higher 
than the earth, so are My ways higher than your 
ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts”.— 
(Isaiah 55: 7—9.) 


On that ground we must take our stand if we are to 
dare to believe John 3: 16. 


But if it is so, the second difficulty confronts us. If 
this is indeed a world that God loves, then why is it such a 
world? How comes it that an Almighty God let things 
get into such a mess? Doesn’t it look as if either He had 
no power, or did not care? 


This is, indeed, a very dark mystery, and we can not 
wholly solve it; but it is a partial answer to say that om- 
nipotence is the ability to do anything that can be accom- 
plished by power, but that the highest things in man lie 
outside the range of power. Who can by power, however 
great, teach a child to read? That must be done by patient 
instruction. Who can by power draw a round triangle, 
which involves a contradiction? Who can by power in- 
duce a love of virtue, though he may restrain somewhat 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 69 


the practice of vice? Especially, who can by any act of 
power produce in a single heart any love for Him? That 
can be done only by loving and being lovable, and if that 
does not succeed, even omnipotence is helpless; for this — 
lies outside the sphere where power can operate. If we 
think this through carefully we begin to see that God 
could not merely by any one great act of power change 
this world from a wicked world to a good one, but had to 
go to work through a patient, long-continued process of 
winning men. 


That God cares, cares infinitely much, is seen in the 
sending of His Son. Whosoever believes that to be a fact 
can never again doubt the love of God, no matter how 
dark things seem. The question is, can we accept it or not? 


Well, if not, what then? Where shall we turn for any 
kind of hope for this old world if we let this go? Much is 
still obscure—we admit it. God has not yet revealed all 
mysteries. What then? Shall we refuse to receive the 
light He gives because He does not at once give all? Shall 
we cavil at the dawn because it is not noon-day? Come, 
let us risk the great adventure! Let us believe it and take 
to our hearts the joy of it. 

“God so loved the world that He gave His only 


begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him 
should not perish but have eternal life’’. 


70 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


~ XVIII. 
CHRIST AS TEACHER. 


“The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us’. 


HAT DID HE COME TO DO? Among other things, 

to teach; and the more the teaching of Jesus Christ 

is studied, the more clearly will it be seen that He taught 

exactly as such a being, so come from heaven to teach us, 
ought to have taught. 


The two great outstanding characteristics of His teach- 
ing, as noted by His contemporaries, were graciousness 
and authority. When He visited His old home at Naz- 
areth, and preached in the synagogue, His hearers “won- 
dered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His 
mouth”; and the world has not done wondering yet. This 
sracious kindness of His speech is felt by the reader 
throughout the gospels. To be sure, there are stern warn- 
ings, too, and His final denunciation of His enemies, in the 
twenty-third chapter of Matthew, is terrific; but with these 
few exceptions a winsome graciousness pervades His speech. 


The second characteristic is that of authority. 


“And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these 
sayings, the people were astonished at His doctrine, for He 
taught them as one having authority, and not as the 
scribes”. (Matt. 7: 28, 29.) This must not be understood 
as casting any reflection upon the teaching of the scribes. 
They taught, essentially, in the same manner as our own 
learned men teach, by quoting other scholars, by reason- 
ing out the problems before them, and by expressing their 
opinions, often tentatively and hesitatingly. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 71 


This is the way Jesus did not teach. He is unique in 
that He never expresses an opinion, saying: “I think so 
and so”, or, “As far as I can see, it must be so”. Nor does 
He undertake to reason anything out, seeking to establish 
His assertions by such a process of proof that the hearer 
may judge for himself as to whether they are true or not. 
He speaks as one having full and original knowledge, 
whose mere assertion is in itself sufficient proof. Neither 
does He ever refer to the opinions or reasonings of others. 
There had been eminent scholars before His time among 
the Jews, great rabbis, held in honor for piety and learn- 
ing, and their opinions were quoted with reverence 
wherever religion was discussed in the days of Jesus, but 
not one single rabbi is quoted or referred to in all His 
teachings! The Scriptures, to be sure, are quoted, be- 
~ cause they were reckoned to be divine, but even here, only 
for illustration, or to meet His hearers upon their own 
ground, never as necessary for His own information and 
guidance. Still another feature of this “speaking with 
authority’ is that there is no subject connected with the 
religious and moral life of man which He hesitates to dis- 
cuss; and never, no matter what the problem proposed, 
does He wait to think it over. He is always ready with the 
supremely appropriate reply. Nowhere is this more clearly 
seen than in that very remarkable debate between Him- 
self and the chief priests, the very keenest minds of His 
day, as recorded in the twenty-second chapter of Matthew. 
Every question is answered instantly, with quiet confi- 
dence and with supreme wisdom. Then, again, it is re- 
corded that they were “astonished at His doctrine”. 
Finally, the confession, “I don’t know”, which must be so 
often used by every human teacher, finds no place upon 
His lips, except in one case, in a very special connection, 
with respect to the day and hour of the final judgment. 


72 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


Now, if the teaching so uttered amounted to nothing— 
contained absurdities and nonsense, all this would mean 
only insufferable conceit; but two thousands years have 
passed away, and still the judgment stands: “Never man 
spake like this Man”. 


On this point Professor George Romanes, the eminent 
scientist, associated with Charles Darwin, says, in his 
Thoughts on Religion, page 167: 


“One of the strongest pieces of objective evidence in 
favor of Christianity is not sufficiently enforced by apolo- 
gists. Indeed, I am not aware that I have ever seen it men- 
tioned. It is the absence from the biography of Christ of 
any doctrines which the subsequent growth of human 
knowledge—whether in natural science, ethics, political 
economy, or elsewhere—has had to discount. 


“This negative argument is really almost as strong as 
the positive one from which Christ did teach. For when 
we consider what a large number of sayings are recorded. 
of—or at least attributed to Him—it becomes most re- 
markable that in literal truth there is no reason why any 
of His words should ever pass away, in the sense of be- 
coming obsolete .... 


“Contrast Jesus in this respect with other thinkers of 
like antiquity . . . . Even Plato is nowhere in this respect 
as compared with Christ. Read the dialogues, and see 
how enormous is the contrast with the gospels in respect 
of errors of all kinds—reaching even to absurdity in re- 
spect of reason, and to sayings shocking to the moral 
sense. Yet this is confessedly the highest level of human 
reason on the lines of spirituality, when unaided by 
alleged revelation”. 


We appeal to our friends who are not yet Christians to 
think these things through. How comes there to lie before 
us in the gospels such a record of such a teacher? You 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 73 


need not (for the purposes of the present argument) be- 
lieve these documents to be inspired, but you can not help 
seeing that here is a portrait drawn from life. There can 
be no question that there actually was, in the days of the 
Emperor Tiberius, in Palestine, a young Jew who spoke in 
this way; a teacher utterly and unapproachably unique, 
among all who ever have arisen to instruct the sons of 
men. He said of Himself, and the Christian church be- 
lieves it to be true, that He was God incarnate, come for 
a season into human life to redeem mankind. 


What are you going to do with Him? If He was not 
what He claimed to be, what explanation do you give 
yourself of these facts? 


If He was, can you any longer turn away from Him 
and refuse to listen to His teachings? 


74 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


REX. 
SINS OF THE HEART. ~~ 


HE SERMON ON THE MOUNT, recorded in chapters 
five to seven of the Gospel of Matthew, is pre-emi- 
nent among the discourses of Christ. Indeed, there are 
not a few who look upon it and speak of it as the most 
important part of His teaching, and even propose to unite 
upon this platform Jews, Mohammedans, and Christians, 
as if this alone were sufficient. 


Such a grotesque misunderstanding of the Sermon on 
the Mount requires no refutation, and would not even 
deserve mention, if it were not, in one form or another, so 
common among superficial people. Nevertheless, it is 
true that this is a supremely valuable portion of the 
record, and therefore it is from this sermon that we wish 
to take a thought today. 


“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old 
time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill 
shall be in danger of the judgment; but I say 
unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother 
without a cause shall be in danger of the judg- 
ment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, 
Raca, shall be in danger of the council, but whoso- 
ever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of 
hell fire’. (Matt. 5:21, 22.) 


“Ye have heard that it was said by them of 
old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery; but I 
say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman 
to lust after her, hath committed adultery with 
her already in his heart”. (Matt. 5:27, 28.) 


In these passages two representative sins are selected, 
those of murder and adultery, and the teaching is that the 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 75D 


sin lies not merely in the outward act, but in the state of 
mind that leads to it and is expressed by it; insomuch that 
he who cherishes the desire or purpose to commit these 
sins is already adjudged guilty of them in the sight of God. 
This does not mean that the random thought of such 
things, instantly repressed and vigilantly guarded against, 
is sin. We can not honestly consider ourselves in any 
way responsible for all the thoughts that arise within us. 
The reference is to those thoughts and purposes of evil to 
which we lend the hospitality of our hearts. As Luther 
quaintly put it: “We can not help it if foul birds fly over 
our heads, but we can keep them from making nests in 
our hair’. 


Murder and adultery are counted among the foulest 
sins, and have always been so held, in all ages and in all 
lands. To think that we ourselves might be guilty of them 
strikes many of us at first as absurd. It may be so, that 
from some hearts even the seeds of these particular of- 
fenses, so far as conscious thought is concerned, are ab- 
sent. They are offered, after all, as illustrations to estab- 
lish the general truth that moral standing is to be meas- 
ured by the state of the heart, not by the outward act; and 
even if in some men these particular evils are not found, 
the teaching loses but little of its force, for other sins are 
there. 


Yet it is wortth our while to ask whether it is really 
true that there is no murder in our hearts. We have not 
committed homicide, and we have not the slightest desire 
or intention to do so. Be it so, yet what is it that restrains 
us? Isit brotherly love for our fellow man, or respect for 
his rights, or a recognition of the sinfulness of the act in 
the sight of God? Or is it only that there is no special 
reason why we should murder any one, and our refined 


76 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


sensibilities recoil from the grewsome details, the gaping 
wound, the spattered brains? Is it that we fear the law or 
have too much respect for our good name? Honestly, if 
we had very much to gain, and nothing at all to lose, 
would the life of our fellow-man be safe in our hands? 


Suppose—it is an absurd supposition, but it will serve 
—that you had on the wall of your room a push button, so 
made that if you touched it you would gain a million dol- 
lars, and simultaneously a Chinaman, somewhere in the 
interior of that country, whom you do not know, have 
never seen and never would see, would die a painless 
death, without any possibility that the act would ever be 
brought home to you; then are you quite sure that the life 
of that Chinaman would be safe? With all respect to you, 
I would not insure it! Yet, if it would not, then it is not 
the crime of murder in itself that is abhorrent to you, but 
only the accompaniments and consequences of that crime. 


If we must confess that this is the state of our hearts, 
does not the sin of murder lie within us, albeit, for the 
time, like a chained or sleeping tiger? 


So it is with the sin of adultery, too. Not the physical 
act only, or chiefly, Jesus teaches us, is what God forbids 
as uncleanness in the relations between men and women; 
but all such things as lead up to it, all immodesty of be-. 
havior or of thought. Under the same condemnation fall 
also all suggestions of such things in literature, art, the 
theatre, dress or social intercourse; and if this is so, God 
help us, in these days! 


The reasonableness of thus bringing the inward life 
and the seeds of sin to the bar of the moral judgment, is 
not open to dispute, once our attention has been called to 
it. Our consciences instantly approve it; for we know that 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 77 


the inward life is a man’s real life, of which the conduct is 
only a manifestation—and how limited a manifestation! 
Much toil and effort are spent to make men outwardly 
decent and tolerable. Education, in the home, the school, 
and the church, is directed largely toward teaching people 
to refrain from saying things they would like to say, and 
doing things they wish to do. Our criminal laws are for 
the same purpose, and not less so the conventions of 
society. Decency is preserved by constant make-believe, 
and we call ourselves virtuous and fortunate if by such 
methods we attain a partial success. 


Now what are such people as this to do when presently 
they shall stand in judgment before a holy God, before 
Whom all the thoughts and intents of the heart are naked 
and open? Shall we then still be able to cover our sins 
and boast of our goodness? If not, then it is better, while 
there is yet time, to exchange the attitude of the Pharisee 
for that of the Publican, and to cry out: 


“God, be merciful to me, a sinner’’. 


78 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XX. 
THE BLESSEDNESS OF SORROW. 


“Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall 
be comforted’. (Matthew 5: 4.) 


HIS is also from the Sermon on the Mount. As the 

passage concerning sins of the heart showed us the 

teaching of Christ in its aspect of authority, so this pas- 
sage may be offered as an illustration of its grace. 


Strange words these are to utter in such a world as 
this! Very differently does the world speak: “Blessed 
are they that laugh, that have health and wealth and 
youth and joy; and therefore know no sorrow. Blessed 
are they that never mourn”. Very differently also speaks 
Buddhism: “Blessed are they that neither mourn nor 
laugh, for sorrow and joy alike are vanity”. 


Necessary words, however, they are, too; for sorrow is 
a fact, and no religion can lay claim to having arrived at 
a solution of the essential problems of human life that has 
no answer to the questions why sorrow is here, what it 
should do for us, and how we are to meet it. Christ alone 
dares to call sorrow a blessing, and to offer comfort. 


Yet He does not mean to say that sorrow is in itself a 
blessing, regardless of what causes it and what results 
from it; for then His words would be: “Blessed are they 
that mourn, for they shall never cease to mourn.” In 
saying, “For they shall be comforted”, He foretells the end 
of sorrow in comfort so complete that it shall more than 
compensate for the sorrow that preceded it. 


Neither do these words mean that all sorrow, without 
distinction, is blessed. Christ speaks elsewhere of the 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 79 


outer darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth, and He does not suggest that this is blessed sorrow. 
There is also the sorrow of which the apostle Paul speaks 
and which he calls, “the sorrow of this world which 
worketh death”. 


What kind of sorrow, then, is blessed sorrow, what is 
the comfort we are to expect, and how may we become 
partakers of this comfort? 


Mourning for sin is blessed sorrow, and is the first 
thing indicated here. The preceding verse gives us the 
order of thought. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for 
theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. To be poor in spirit is 
to be spiritually poor—to be conscious that within our- 
selves there is nothing spiritually valuable or desirable. 
We have no knowledge, or holiness, or love, or righteous- 
ness, or goodness, or virtue, or anything else that can 
count as of some value in the sight of God, or in the spir- 
itual realm, in that real and eternal world toward which 
we are hastening day by day. We are spiritually poverty- 
stricken, morally and spiritually bankrupt. 


It is not blessed to be in that condition, but since we 
all are there, it is blessed to know it. That knowledge is 
the first step heaVenward; yet that knowledge will surely 
fill the soul with sorrow, and so we proceed at first upon 
our way weeping. It is this sorrow that is primarily and 
chiefly meant when Jesus says: “Blessed are they that 
mourn”, and it is the comfort of reconciliation with God 
which He has first of all in mind when He says: “They 
shall be comforted”. Yet it does not stop there. No sor- 
row at all is blessed to the heart that is not reconciled with 
God, or is not led by such sorrow to seek reconciliation; 
but any and every kind of mourning may be blessed after 
we are so reconciled, or if it leads us to seek reconciliation. 


80 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


It matters not what the cause of trouble may be: dis- 
appointment, bereavement, sickness, failure, poverty, busi- 
ness losses, the bitterness of being misunderstood, ma- 
ligned, persecuted, or, severest of all trials, the wayward- 
ness of son or daughter—any and every kind of trouble 
without exception may be to us the source of precious 
spiritual gains and may be wiped out in perfect comfort if 
only we will take our mourning to Jesus Christ. To the 
Christian, more than to any one else, “sweet are the uses 
of adversity”. 


THEY SHALL BE COMFORTED. 


This is Christ’s guarantee. He does not mean to say 
that the comfort will come of itself, flowing automatically 
from the sorrow; that would not be true. He means that 
He is able and willing to make it so, if only men will trust 
themselves to Him. No one but Jesus Christ has ever 
dared to make such an offer to a suffering world. Has He 
made good? Two thousand years have elapsed, many 
have taken Him at His word, and there has been time 
enough to test it. What is the testimony? With one con- 
sent Christians of all ages, of all lands, and of every walk 
in life agree that He has made good on this offer. They 
testify that into their sorrowing hearts has come the balm | 
of His comfort, and that out of their sorrow has come in- 
estimable gain. Get into contact with some experienced 
Christian man or woman who has known much sorrow, 
and note the sweetness of character, the maturity of un- 
derstanding, the sympathetic insight, the assured calm 
that pervades the life of such a one. Yet this is but the 
beginning. The fulness of the comfort waits until the time 
of the end, when all things shall be made perfect; for it is 
written that then “God shall wipe away all tears from their 
eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 81 


crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the 
former things are passed away” (Revelation 21: 4). 


Sorrow is so permanent and important an element in 
human life that, among other tests, it is fair to judge sys- 
tems of religion and philosophy by their competence to 
deal with it. The highest point in Greek philosophy was 
reached by the Stoics, who counseled resignation, since 
the evils of the world are inevitable, and the philosopher 
should be calm and stern and strong enough to remain un- 
moved by them. Buddhism has a different solution: it 
declares that both sorrow and joy spring from “error”, 
that is, from the delusion that the world is real. Let but 
the mind rise to true enlightenment, so that it recognizes 
the unreality of all things, and it will sorrow no more, 
neither will it know joy any more. 


When God, “for us men and for our salvation”, be- 
came incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ, He could 
not ignore this problem of sorrow. He met it in Geth- 
semane and on Calvary; He purchased for us the solution 
and He has the right to offer it to us in these precious 
words: 


“Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall 
be comforted’’. 


82 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XXI. 
REST FOR THE SOUL. 


“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest’. (Mat- 
thew 11: 28.) 


HIS IS not only a sinful and sorrowing world; it is a 

weary one. Mark Twain was right when he described 

the ordinary state of human life in the following words: 

“A myriad of men are born; they labor and sweat and 

struggle for bread .... the burden of pain, care, misery 
grows heavier year by year”. 


It is precisely because it is such a world that God was 
made flesh and dwelt among us, and such a world it must 
remain except to those who have accepted His invitation 
and entered into His rest. 


Life loads us with many and heavy burdens. There is 
the burden of making a living: a heavy burden, indeed, to 
many among us, to the toiler who works early and late, 
but carries home a pay envelope that can only with the 
utmost economy be made to cover food, shelter, and cloth- 
ing. There is the burden of household drudgery which 
knows no holiday year in year out. There is the burden 
of anxiety because the income leaves no margin for sick- 
ness and old age—no one likes to face the prospect of the 
poorhouse at the end of the weary way. There is, for the 
more prosperous, the burden of responsibility that goes 
with the better-paid positions in industry, commerce, or 
the professional life. There are the burdens of sickness, 
bereavement, infirmity, and over all the fear of death, 
seldom spoken of but always present. There is the burden 
of maintaining one’s place in society, and there is the 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 83 


pleasure-seeker’s burden, not the lightest of those that 
break the backs of men—for nothing can become a more 
intolerable boredom than the unceasing search for amuse- 
ment. There is the burden of the skeleton in the closet, 
the thing that is never forgotten, and yet must never be 
mentioned. There is the growing sense of the futility of 
life, one is always on the go and never getting any- 
where—what is the good of it all? There is the burden of 
sin and guilt, not resting in conscious weight upon many, 
but adding to the load of all. Though men do not perceive 
that their chief trouble is alienation from God, this does 
not hinder its being so. 


To all of these, no matter what the burden is, Christ 
offers rest. The words admit of no qualification: “Come 
unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest”. Notice especially that He does not say: 
“Believe My teaching and ye shall have rest for your 
souls’. Believing His teaching is a very important thing, 
and is certainly included in this “coming” to Him, but it is 
not all or even the chief part of that coming. The chief 
thing is to place one’s self in His hands, as a patient places 
himself in the hands of the physician, henceforth pur- 
posing to regulate his diet and habits as instructed, and 
to take such medicine as is given him. It is a personal 
relation and involves the right of the physician in impor- 
tant respects to govern the life of his patient. Let a man 
come in this manner to Christ and he shall have rest. 


Christ gives rest, first of all, by establishing a new rela- 
tion between the soul and God. One aspect of this is that 
the sense of the forgiveness of sins fills the heart with “the 
peace that passeth understanding”. Another is that one 
ceases to worry over temporal things; the “taking thought” 
for the things of the morrow, about what we shall eat and 
what we shall drink, and wherewithal we shall be clothed, 


84 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


retires into the background of life, where it belongs. An- 
other aspect still is that a new freedom of approach to 
God in prayer is experienced. One learns “to lay one’s 
burdens at His feet and bear a song away”. Still another 
way in which Christ gives rest is by providing strength to 
bear the burden. What was a staggering load, because we 
were so weak, becomes an easy task because we have ex- 
perienced an inflow of power. Christ gives rest by remoy- 
ing the sense of futility, of walking in a treadmill, that is 
so unutterably wearisome. To the Christian, life takes on 
a breadth and richness of meaning that places it in strik- 
ing contrast to the life of one who has no Christian faith. 
No matter how humble his individual task may be, he 
feels himself to be a co-worker with God. 


Christ gives rest also by giving hope. The present may 
be poor and mean, the Christian knows that he is a child 
of God, and he reckons that “the sufferings of this present 
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that 
shall be revealed”. He walks always with uplifted head, 
knowing that the best is yet to be. 


Christ gives rest, finally, by His personal presence in 
the heart, sustaining, comforting, cheering us with the 
sweetness of His fellowship. 


We realize, as we write these lines, that what we say 
must seem to many readers mystical and foolish, yet noth- 
ing is better attested by experience, and no end of wit- 
nesses could be produced. The explanation is clumsy and 
unsatisfying, we know that. You are welcome to criticize 
or reject the explanation, if you will only accept the testi- 
mony, and come and taste for yourself, and see that the 
Lord is good. We are like people who have traveled 
abroad and are but poor hands to describe what they have 
seen, and yet: “We speak what we do know, and testify 
what we have seen”. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 85 


At least, you can see this, can you not; that if Chris- 
tianity is true, if God has really come into human life, then 
those who have believed it and have received Him, must 
have experiences that others cannot yet understand? Also 
this, that if such a saying of Christ as we have placed at 
the head of this article had not been found true in experi- 
ence, it would long ago have been buried beyond recovery 
under the derisive laughter of mankind; for what can we 
think of a man who stood up and said: “Come unto Me, 
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest’? To offer Himself as the burden-bearer for the 
whole world, and to promise rest to all without distinction 
who will come to Him—what is this but either insanity or 
deity? We can understand men who utterly reject and 
condemn Christ better than we can those who profess to 
admire Him and yet do not believe that He was God 
manifest in the flesh. 


86 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XXII. 
MIRACLES AND SCIENCE. 


NE OF the most important subjects in connection with 

the record of the New Testament is that of miracles. 

When this subject is mentioned, many a man says some- 

thing like this: “What’s the use of talking about miracles? 

In this scientific age everybody that has any sense knows 
that there are no such things. Miracles don’t happen”. 


Is that really so? Let us see. To begin with, what are 
miracles? They are events that were due to the direct power 
of God, because they never could have been brought to 
pass by natural forces only, working according to natural 
law. Natural forces, to be sure, may have been present, 
but it belongs to the essential idea of a miracle that they 
would not have been able of themselves to bring about 
the alleged event. 


Now what does the scientist say about it? He says, 
when he hears the event alleged to have taken place (for 
instance, the raising of the dead) that it is impossible; 
meaning impossible under natural law. 


Very well, the believer in miracles says that, too, so 
they agree perfectly; where is the conflict? The impossi- 
bility that the event as alleged should take place by nat- 
ural forces only, working under natural law, is quite as 
strongly insisted upon by the believer as by the scientist. 
If you can show the former that an event he believes to 
have been miraculous was produced, or could very well 
have been produced, naturally, he at once loses all interest 
in it, for what makes it valuable to him is not the event 
itself (for instance, what do we care whether a man named 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 87 


Lazarus rose from the dead or not) but the manifest pres- 
ence of God in it. 


But you must be careful here. As already stated, the 
miraculous character of the event is not destroyed if there 
is a natural element in it, but only if the natural element 
explains the event completely. The divine element in a 
miracle is similar to the human element in ordinary 
events. For instance, take a potato field. No one doubts 
that there are natural forces at work here: seed, soil, sun- 
shine, rain, etc. These are quite adequate to the produc- 
tion of any single potato plant, but they do not explain 
the field as a whole. For that you need the personality of 
the farmer, his knowledge of the natural forces involved, 
his desire and purpose to raise potatoes, etc., etc., and when 
the crop is gathered you do not hesitate to say that he 
raised it, although you know perfectly well that of the 
sum total of forces that went to produce the potatoes, his 
thought and activity were only a very small part. Very 
small, to be sure, yet absolutely essential and highly 
significant. 


Nature by itself can produce potatoes, but never in a 
thousand ages a potato field. Strictly speaking, from the 
standpoint of natural law, the field is a miracle; for it 
could not have been produced except by free personality, 
and free personality is not under natural law. Men say, as 
if they were giving a complete account of the universe, 
“we know that the law of cause and effect governs all 
things”. This is not true. Mere cause and effect can not 
explain a boy throwing a stone or a carpenter driving a 
nail. These are personal acts, not natural acts. We live 
in a world of natural causation, plus personal causation, 
and these two are different, the one from the other. As 
Lord Kelvin, one of the world’s most famous scientists, 
said in an address in April, 1903: “Every action of free 


88 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


will is a miracle to physical, chemical, and mathematical 
science”. 


Now to believe in the possibility of miracles it is only 
necessary to extend this familiar idea of personal causa- 
tion to God. If there is no God, then, of course, there are 
no miracles, but if there is one, why should not He be able 
to do something that natural law by itself could never 
accomplish, as well as we, and on a far grander scale? 
The man who believes in a Creator has no excuse for re- 
jecting miracles as impossible. St. Paul saw that long 
ago when he said: “Why should it be thought incredible 
with you that God should raise the dead”? (Acts 26: 8.) 


“But”, say some, “miracles are a violation or suspen- 
sion of natural law, which can not be”. That is a mistake. 
No law of nature is suspended or violated when personal 
causation is added to natural causation. By the law of 
gravitation a book held suspended in the air has an at- 
traction towards the earth that would cause it to fall if 
not held. It doesn’t fall because I hold it, but in so doing, 
do I at all violate or suspend the law? Not in the least. 
The law of gravitation is in full working order on that 
book all the time, but there is also another force present, 
the force of personal causation, and therefore a different 
result is reached. So it isin miracles. The new and un- 
usual cause, God’s will acting directly, results in a new and 
unusual event without in any way violating or suspending 
existing laws. 


The credibility of miracles is therefore not a scientific 
question. It is a question of the existence of God; and if a 
man believes that God exists, then it is a question whether 
the alleged miracle is of such a kind, performed by such a 
person, under such circumstances, and with such a pur- 
pose, that we may reasonably believe God would exercise 
His power in such a manner. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 89 


Prof. George Romanes states the case from the stand- 
point of pure reason as follows: 


“The antecedent improbability against a miracle being 
wrought by a man, without a moral object, is apt to be 
confused with that of its being done by God, with an ade- 
quate moral object. The former is immeasurably great; 
the latter is only equal to that of the theory of Theism, 
that is, nil’. 


Read that again. Here is one of the world’s greatest 
scientists telling us that there is nothing improbable 
about the idea that God should work a miracle, for a good 
reason. Put that alongside of Lord Kelvin’s remark, 
quoted above, and let us have done with foolish and ignor- 
ant talk about modern science having made it impossible 
to believe in miracles. 


90 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XXIII. 
THE MIRACLES OF JESUS. 


HE GOSPEL RECORDS contain numerous stories of 
miracles wrought by Jesus Christ. They do not pro- 
fess to give them all; indeed, they expressly say that He 
wrought ever so many more, and incidental references 
here and there confirm this assertion. For instance, in 
John 3:2, Nicodemus says that the miracles have con- 
vinced him that Jesus is a teacher sent from God, and the 
same miracles are said to have gained Jesus an unexpected 
welcome in Galilee some months later (John 4: 43-45), yet 
not a single one of the miracles referred to is on record. 
Those narrated are apparently offered as samples, or told 
because they introduce certain discourses. 


The miracles exhibit in the realm of action the same 
characteristic of “authority” that His teaching bears in the 
realm of thought. Jesus moves in this world as its Master, 
rebuking the winds, stilling the waves, walking on the sea, 
multiplying loaves, healing diseases, raising the dead; and 
doing it all with a certain calm and apparently effortless 
majesty. 


We could not have imagined in that way ourselves, but 
now that the record les before us, we can see that He 
taught just as the Word made flesh ought to have taught; 
and that His miracles, too, with their impression of infinite 
reserve power, are wrought just as God manifest in the 
flesh might worthily and with dignity work them. 


With this agrees the striking circumstance that never 
in a single instance were they wrought for His personal 
safety, comfort, or convenience. He was hungry, but re- 
fused to turn stones into bread; yet, when others were 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 91 


hungry, He multiplied loaves to feed them. He was 
thirsty, and begged a drink from a woman at a well, but 
He used no miraculous power to refresh Himself. He was 
often weary with long marches, but He never transported 
Himself from place to place by miraculous power. Once 
when He wished to ride He borrowed an ass. In all His 
miracles His concern was for others, not for Himself. 


Neither is He represented as working His miracles to 
bring conviction to doubters. It is true, He does refer to 
them as proving His divine commission, but that is after 
they have taken place. The occasion, in each case, was 
some human need that appealed to His sympathies. The 
only exception to this, we think, is the cursing of the fig- 
tree, and that was done for purposes of instruction. Jesus 
_was at the furthest possible remove from putting His pow- 
ers on exhibition to satisfy the curiosity or awaken the 
faith of a crowd that had no ear for His instruction. Often 
He strictly forbade those whom He had healed to say any- 
thing about it. Once, when His miracles had become the 
chief attraction, He abruptly left the district. When on 
trial for His life He was sent to Herod Antipas, and might 
easily have won the favor of that monarch by working a 
miracle or two, but He absolutely refused. When the 
Scribes and Pharisees demanded a theatrical “sign from 
heaven”, he turned away from them in disgust and 
indignation. 


Finally, the same documents that give us such a picture 
of Jesus and His unlimited miraculous powers, tell the 
story of His arrest, trial, condemnation, and execution, 
without a single reference to such a thing. He went to 
His death, apparently, as helpless to resist as you or I 
would be. 


Such is the story as it lies before us in the four gos- 


92 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


pels, a story with which many of us have become so fa- 
miliar that the very familiarity keeps us from seeing what 
an extraordinary tale it is; for in very truth there is noth- 
ing like it anywhere else. Stories of marvels, to be sure, 
there are, a plenty; but such a collection of stories center- 
ing in a historical person, happening all within the space 
of three or four years, of such variety, meaning, and ma- 
jesty, so in touch with every aspect of human life, so 
utterly without selfish character or purpose, so united with 
the profoundest teachings, with the miracle-worker so 
helpless to avert His own fate: No, nothing even remotely 
resembling this is found. If you think you can find some- 
thing comparable elsewhere, let us have it. 


Now the existence of such a record is' a fact. Let us 
start with that. When did it originate? That we know, 
too. The gospels were written between 70 and 80 A. D., 
or thereabouts, about 50 years after the time when these 
events are alleged to have occurred. When the common 
elements of the first three gospels are compared, however, 
it is plain that the story, either in written or in oral form, 
or both, existed earlier; thus bringing us to within a few 
years of the death of Christ. 


Now it is a fair question: “How are you going to 
account for the existence of this story, or this collection of 
stories, at that time”? One way to do so is, of course, to 
believe that the story is true. That is our way. Then 
everything is simple. People saw Jesus do these things 
and remembered them, or took notes on them, or wrote 
letters to others about them. This material eventually 
found its way into our four gospels, either because the 
writers were themselves eye-witnesses. (Matthew and 
John) or because they were closely associated with eye- 
witnesses (Mark) or because they took the trouble to 
investigate (Luke). 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 93 


If we adopt this view, the whole thing fits together 
perfectly. The miracles recorded are such works, and 
were performed in such a way, as agrees with the funda- 
mental idea of the Christian religion, that in the person 
of Jesus Christ God came down into this world to redeem 
mankind from sin. We have here the things required for 
a credible miracle, that God should do it, and for an ade- 
quate moral cause. Then, also, we can explain the rise 
of the Christian religion, the organization of the Christian 
church, and all the subsequent development. On this 
theory that the miracles actually took place as alleged— 
everything is intelligible, clear and credible. 


! 


94 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


| XXIV. 
ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS OF THE MIRACLES. 


T HAS GIVEN intelligent opponents of the Christian 
religion no end of trouble to find some alternative ex- 
planation of the way in which the narratives of the 
miracles of Jesus Christ arose. The narratives are there, 
and have to be accounted for some way. 


We say, “intelligent opponents”, for the unintelligent 
ones don’t bother to think up any explanation. All they 
think it necessary to say is: “Of course, that’s all non- 
sense. Those stories can’t be true. Miracles are contrary 
to science, they never happen”, or words to that effect. 
When assertion does duty for argument, reasoning is at 
an end. 


The attempt to find some alternative explanation is per- 
fectly legitimate. In fact, it may be said to be a duty not 
only for the unbeliever but for the believer as well. A gen- 
uine miracle is like the burning bush that Moses saw; in 
its presence we stand on holy ground. Its value consists 
in this, that it brings us into the very presence of God, and 
He manifests to us His glory. To see Him in every little 
thing that at first passes our comprehension, without ever 
looking for a natural explanation, is the way to debase 
faith into superstition. It cheapens the idea of God, and 
is one way of taking His name in vain. It is right, there- 
fore, that we should consider whether the gospel accounts 
of His miracles could have arisen in some other way 
than by their being true accounts of what really happened. 


One explanation attempted is that these events, while 
substantially true, are natural events misunderstood. The 
rationalists of Germany, in the eighteenth century, took 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 95 


this line, and expended much ingenuity in finding natural 
explanations. These have been laughed out of court long 
ago, and are by this time forgotten, except by scholars. A 
more promising attempt, along the same line, is that made 
by some at the present time who explain the casting out of 
devils as the healing of nervous diseases by suggestion; 
and find parallels for some of the other miracles in psycho- 
therapy, or various form of faith healing. There is no 
doubt, on the one hand, that remarkable cures are caused 
in this way at the present time, nor, on the other, that the 
explanation would fit some of the cures recorded in the 
gospels pretty well. It is conceivable, for instance, that 
the paralytic borne of four, and let down through the roof 
(Mark 2: 1-12) was suffering from what is known as false 
paralysis. The same may be suggested in connection with 
the infirm man at the Pool of Bethesda, concerning the 
nature of whose disease we have no information. (John 5: 


2-9.) 


Such an explanation, however, applies to so few of the 
recorded miracles that it is not of much importance as a 
solution of the problem. It is impossible in such cases as 
the cure of leprosy, of the man born blind, of the raising 
of Lazarus, the stilling of the tempest, the miracles 
wrought at a distance, etc., etc. Nor do the phenomena, 
when closely examined, agree with what takes places in 
psycho-therapy. Peter’s wife’s mother, sick of a high 
fever, was cured at the touch of Christ’s hands, and imme- 
diately rose and ministered to Him. Where was the period 
of convalescence, so necessary in all cases of healing, 
whether by psycho-therapy or otherwise? 


If natural explanations do not satisfy, is it not possible 
that the stories are legends, products of pious imagina- 
tion, that sought to glorify Christ? This theory can be put 


96 ° THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


to a very fair test, since beyond doubt there are legendary 
stories of that kind extant with regard to Christ, outside 
the four gospels. They are also extant with*tegard to other 
heroes, so that there is abundant material for comparison. 
When we do so compare them, the difference at once 
proves that the gospel stories cannot have had a legendary 
origin. Such tales, for one thing, cluster especially around 
the childhood of the hero, but the Bible contains not a 
single instance of any miracle wrought by Christ during 
His infancy or early manhood. Compare this with the 
story of how Hercules strangled two great serpents with 
his chubby little hands, while a baby lying in his cradle; 
or with the story of the new-born Buddha, how he imme- 
diately stood sheer upright on his feet, walked northward 
with a seven-paced stride and bellowed out: “I am the 
chief of the world!” The lack of such stories in connec- 
tion with the infancy of Jesus was so painfully felt by the 
early Christians, that they undertook to supply them. The 
tales they told may be read in any public library in the so- 
called “Apocryphal Gospels”. They tell of the most won- 
derful miracles performed by Jesus in His childhood, and 
to compare these silly stories with the record of His mir- 
acles in the canonical gospels, is one of the most satisfac- 
tory ways of determining the truth of the latter. No intel- 
ligent man can possibly read the two, side by side, and 
imagine that they had a similar origin. 


Another thing worth considering is that if these mir- 
acles were the product of the pious imagination of the 
early Christians, the later writings must have contained 
more such stories, and must have laid more emphasis on 
them than the earlier; but that is not the case. It it gener- 
ally agreed that Mark is in all probability the earliest, and 
John the latest, but the former has far more miracle stories 
than the latter. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 97 


Again, if the stories had been legends, fiction, or in any 
way owed their origin to the imagination of people at that 
time, there must have been references to magic in them, 
and the stories themselves must have run along lines par- 
allel with the doing of magicians. That is the case with 
the “Apocryphal Gospels’, which represent Jesus as trans- 
forming a mule into a man, and speak of a devil issuing 
from a boy’s side in the form of a dog. Such forms of 
thought permeated the imagination of that day, and it was 
impossible for even very intelligent men to get away from 
them. Josephus, for example, was a very able, intelligent, 
and scholarly writer contemporary with the four evangel- 
ists, and in his Antiquities of the Jews he tells of himself 
having seen an exorcist draw a devil out of a man through 
his nose, with a magic ring upon which the name of King 
Solomon was written. Now turn to the four gospels and 
find the slightest trace of magic, if you can. How do you 
explain it? 


An insuperable objection to the theory of fiction, in 
any form, is the connection of the miracle stories with the 
rest of the narrative and with the entire course of history. 
Some people have thought they could disentangle them, 
accepting the general, non-miraculous narrative of the gos- 
pels, but leaving out the miracles. The attempt is vain. 
The miracles are so interwoven with the rest that after 
you have taken them out, there is nothing left; but you 
absolutely must preserve the history, for Christianity is a 
fact, and must be accounted for. 


It is interesting to know that the earliest opponents of 
the Christian religion did not deny the reality of Christ’s 
miracles. The Jews were bitterly opposed, but the earliest 
Jewish references to them do not deny that they took 
place. They admit their historicity, but explain them as 


98 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


the devil’s work. Celsus, the first Greek writer against 
Christianity, also admits that they took place, but ascribes 
them to magic. These explanations will find no support- 
ers at the present day. 


In fact, there simply isn’t any satisfactory way of ex- 
plaining the existence of such a record except by accept- 
ing it as true. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 99 


XXV. 
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MIRACLES. 


HERE ARE not a few people nowadays who take an 
attitude of lofty unconcern about the reality of 
Christ’s miracles. They say: “What difference does it 
make whether He really wrought them or not? We are 
interested in the permanent elements of His teaching, and 
these remain the same, whether He worked miracles or 
didn’t. The miracles may have been a help to faith in 
bygone generations, but they are rather a hindrance now. 
Even if they are given up, we still have the golden rule 
and the sermon on the mount, and that is enough for us”. 


Well, it is not enough for the Christian church or for 
the Christian religion. 


In the first place, to give up the miracles would seri- 
ously discredit our sources of information. Outside of a 
few scattered references, all we know about Jesus is in 
the New Testament. If we do not accept the miracles as 
true, we impeach the veracity or competence of the wit- 
nesses to such an extent that no reliance is to be placed 
on their other statements about Him. How can we believe 
that they accurately report what He said if they were so 
far wrong about what He did? The attitude described 
above, therefore, which is willing to throw overboard the 
miracles, but desires to retain the teachings of Jesus, is 
without logical validity. 


A second consideration, and a very serious one for 
Christians of this kind (for, of course, it is only Christians 
that take such a stand), is that in such a case we have a 
Jesus who preached but did not practice what He preached. 
According to the historic Christian view Jesus was full of 


100 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


compassion and spent His time unweariedly in comforting 
and helping mankind. Finally, in the same spirit, He gave 
Himself voluntarily to the bitter and shameful death of the 
cross that He might save the world. So His disciples 
thought and spoke of Him as one who was “mighty in 
deeds” as well as in words, one who “went about doing 
good’. In line with His example, so understood, His fol- 
lowers engage in all manner of loving ministrations to 
their fellow-men, in the same spirit, though without the 
same miraculous power. He had compassion on lepers, 
they have gathered them in hospitals and asylums from 
that day to this, the only kind of people anywhere who 
have cared for such outcasts. He “healed all manner of 
sickness and all manner of disease among the people”, and 
charity hospitals, under Christian auspices, dot the world. 
All this is consistent, natural, and inevitable, if you believe 
the record. 


But now let us, if we call ourselves Christians, have 
the courage honestly to face the facts. If you take out of 
the gospel story the miracles and the atoning death of a 
Divine Redeemer, what did this man Jesus do that you 
should think so highly of Him? Can you find any special 
indication that He concerned Himself about the welfare 
of His fellow-men? To be sure, He preached beautifully, 
but what did He do? Is there so much as a record that 
He shared a crust of bread with a beggar? Did He raise 
funds for poor relief, or declaim against war, or try to free 
the slaves, or promote common- school education, or 
organize the working classes, or reform the prison system, 
or do any other one single thing that would lead to social 
betterment, except to preach? And is not preaching with- 
out practice educationally one of the least effective and 
ethically one of the most contemptible things in existence? 


It may seem odd, or even irreverent, for a Christian to 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 101 


say such things, but it is as well to know where we stand. 
Remove the miracles and the deity of Christ from the 
record, and instead of the majestic figure that has domin- 
ated the centuries, walking among suffering men with di- 
vine power and compassion, you have a little shriveled-up 
contemptible Jesus, who indeed preached admirably, but 
did not practice what He preached. 


In the third place, the miracles are necessary as an at- 
testation of His mission. They are not the highest attes- 
tation, that is conceded. Higher than these stands His 
teaching, and higher still His resurrection. Nevertheless, 
the miracles were an indispensable attestation in that 
age, and no one is entitled to say that they have been any- 
thing less than indispensable to faith in any succeeding 
age. They are performing that function today. Said a 
Japanese physician to the writer: “When I read the gos- 
pels I could not help believing that Jesus was a divine 
Saviour, for no one but God come down to earth could do 
the things He is recorded as doing. That this should all be 
fiction is unthinkable”. That a limited number of our in- 
tellectuals at present consider the miracles rather a hind- 
rance than a help to faith, does not seriously affect the 
case, in considering a religion intended for all the world 
and for all time. 


Finally, the miracles are indispensable as part of the 
revelation Jesus came to bring. The very heart of historic 
Christianity, as we have striven to make clear in these 
discussions, is the Incarnation, the good news that God for 
us men and for our salvation once visited this earth and 
walked among us in the person of Jesus Christ. To assert 
this would be comparatively easy, and very unconvincing. 
The gospels do something far greater than that. In a 
series of artlessly told but very effective anecdotes they 


102 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


portray such a being before us by relating just how He 
acted and what He said. 


Now suppose the account contained no miracles, but 
otherwise remained pretty much as it stands, what kind 
of a being would be portrayed before us? It would be one 
said to be God incarnate, who tarried for a while in a suf- 
fering and sorrowing world, but did nothing to help; who 
said to the paralytic: “Thy sins be forgiven thee”, but 
could not prove it by telling him to get up and walk; who 
was asserted to have made the world, but was Himself at 
the mercy of wind and wave; who could sit down beside 
a sorrowing mother and weep with her, but could not re- 
store her son to her arms. What kind of a God made flesh 
would that be? Don’t you see that the whole conception 
would go to pieces? 


And if that conception is lost, then Christianity is gone. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 108 


XXVI. 
THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 


REAT as are the teachings of Jesus, and remarkable 
as is the record of His miracles, it is a striking fact 
that the earliest literature of the Christian church is with- 
out reference to either. The epistles were written before 
the gospels and show that within a generation after the 
death of Christ, Christian churches had been established 
in the distant regions of Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome. 
Yet all of these epistles contain not a single direct quota- 
tion from the teachings of Jesus, and make no mention 
of any miracle wrought by Him! If the argument from si- 
~ Jence, which in other connections (notable that of the Vir- 
gin Birth) is put forward by some as so important, has any 
real force, then this silence of the epistles ought to be 
good proof that Jesus taught nothing and wrought no 
miracle. 


The real reason is very different. It is that between 
the earthly life of Christ and the writing of the epistles, 
there had happened something of such overwhelming im- 
portance that the church could at first think of almost 
nothing else. That supreme event was the death and 
resurrection of Christ, the two together being considered 
as one complex transaction. This story is familiar to most 
of us, yet its place in Christian thought is so fundamental 
that we may be permitted to state the facts again, as 
laying the basis for further discussion. 


From the very beginning of His ministry, antagonism 
against Jesus had arisen in the breasts of the religious and 
political leaders of the Jewish people. The priestly caste 
were offended by His first public act, the cleansing of the 


104 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


temple. The Pharisees were shocked at His disregard of 
the ancient regulations in regard to the Sabbath, to fast- 
ing, and to the ceremonious washing of hands before 
meals. The company He kept was against Him—He even 
ate with publicans and sinners. Yet with all this He was 
put forward as the long-expected Messiah, very guardedly 
at first, to be sure, but the leaders understood, even if 
most of the people did not. Indeed, His claims went far 
beyond those usually expected of the Messiah. He ascribed 
to Himself the right to forgive sins, and spoke as if all sin 
which men commit is committed against Him, which iden- 
tified Him with God. Many of His other expressions, such 
as that men must love Him more than father or mother, 
that He would like to have gathered all the people of Jeru- 
salem under His protection, as a hen does her chicks, that 
He would come on the clouds of heaven to judge the 
world, and that He existed before Abraham, involved the 
stupendous claim of deity, and were so understood; for we 
*find the Jews saying: “For a good work we stone Thee 
not, but for blasphemy, and because that Thou, being a 
man, makest Thyself God” (John 10: 33). 


The opposition, on these and other grounds, eventually 
grew so strong that the life of Jesus was in danger. While 
He was preaching in Perea, east of the Jordan, He received 
a message calling Him to Bethany, and when He was 
ready to go, Thomas said: “Let us go also, that we may 
die with Him”. From that time on until His death, Jesus 
was an outlaw, and appears to have been in hiding. “Now 
the chief priests and the Pharisees had given command- 
ment that if any man knew where He was he should show 
it, that they might take Him” (John 11: 57). 


Nevertheless, when the feast of the Passover came, 
Jesus went as usual to the capital, in the most open man- 
ner, although taking certain precautions against arrest, to 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 105 


which we shall have occasion to refer later. Once there, 
He bade defiance to His enemies in the courts of the 
temple, in the presence of the people, in that terrific de- 
nunciation which we find recorded in the twenty-third 
chapter of Matthew. 


Two days later, betrayed by one of His own followers 
and intimate friends, He was arrested at night in a garden 
just outside the city and was hurried before Annas, a 
former high priest, who was still the head of the high 
priestly family and the political “boss” of the Jewish na- 
tion, although at the time without official position. After 
a kind of “third degree” examination there He was tried, 
at dawn, before the Sanhedrin, which was a sort of com- 
bination of senate and supreme court. The high priest, 
Caiaphas, presided. It proved difficult to convict Him of 
any definite crime until the presiding officer of the court 
conceived the bright idea of making the prisoner incrimi- 
nate Himself. 


“And the high priest said unto Him: I adjure 
Thee by the living God, that Thou tell us whether 
Thou art the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith 
unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto 
you, henceforth ye shall see the Son of Man sit- 
ting at the right hand of power and coming on the 
clouds of heaven. 


“Then the high priest rent his garments, say- 
ing: He hath spoken blasphemy; what further 
need have we of witnesses? Behold, now ye have 
heard the blasphemy: what think ye? They an- 
swered and said: He is worthy of death”. (Mat- 

_ thew 26: 63-66.) 


So this was the crime and this the sentence. He was 
condemned to death as guilty of blasphemy, because He 
had declared under oath that He was the Son of God. The 
issue on which He was condemned is essentially the same 
issue that underlies the whole Christian religion, and that 


106 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


to this day divides men into opposing camps with regard 
to Jesus Christ: was He a man merely in the ordinary hu- 
man significance of that word, or was He the God-man, the 
eternal Son of God manifest in the flesh? 


Because the Roman law forbade the infliction of the 
death penalty except under sentence from a Roman court, 
the prisoner was taken before Pilate, who, recognizing 
that no crime under Roman law had been proved against 
Him, was most reluctant to accede to the request of the 
Jewish authorities, and would have refused if he had 
dared; but when they threatened to accuse him of dis- 
loyalty to Czsar if he declined to pass sentence of death, 
he yielded and Jesus was crucified. 


So far as the externals of the story go there was noth- 
ing very remarkable about the crucifixion of Christ except 
the crime charged against Him, as above. That a religious 
reformer should come into conflict with the representa- 
tives of the old order, that they should desire His removal, 
and that an unscrupulous judge should be bribed or 
frightened into passing sentence of death, are things which 
belong, alas, to the commonplaces of history. 


When the record is more carefully examined, how- 
ever, there is seen to be another element in it, which, 
hardly noticeable to the superficial reader, becomes more 
and more significant the more the narrative is studied, 
until it is seen to furnish the key to the most extraordinary 
transaction that ever took place. It shall be our endeavor 
to unfold this unusual element in the next chapter. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 107 


XXVIII. 
CHRIST’S DEATH VOLUNTARY. 


HE EXTRAORDINARY ELEMENT in the narrative of 
Christ’s death, to which reference was made at the 
close of the previous chapter, is that he is represented as 
dying a voluntary death; voluntary, moreover, not merely 
in the sense that He was willing to die for a great cause, if 
need be, but that He was determined to die, that He directed 
His movements to that end, and that He Himself decided 
the time and place of the tragedy; in short, that Jesus 
Christ deliberately and of set purpose compassed His own 
death, carrying out therein a pre-arranged program by 
the will of God. 


Our readers will agree that these are extraordinary 
things to assert, and it certainly does not look so upon the 
surface of the transaction. There it looks as if the death 
of Jesus was brought about by the malice of the chief 
priests, the bigotry of the Pharisees, the treachery of 
Judas, and the weakness of Pontius Pilate, all wickedly 
working together to destroy a helpless and innocent man. 
Yet it is easily shown that the former view is both explic- 
itly asserted in the record, and implicitly contained 
therein. 


It is asserted, both by Christ Himself and by the 
Apostles, His authorized representatives, in passages like 
the following: 


“I am the good shepherd . . . I lay down My 
life for the sheep”. (John 10:15.) 


“The Son of Man came .... to give His life 
as aransom for many”. (Mark 10: 45.) 


108 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


“There doth the Father love Me, because I 
lay down My life, that I may take it again. No 
one taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of My- 
self. I have power (or ‘the right’) to lay it down 
and I have power to take it again”. (John 10: 
17, 18.) 

“Christ gave Himself up for us, an offering 
and a sacrifice to God’’. (Ephesians 5: 2.) 


“This He did once for all, when He offered up 
Himself”. (Hebrews 7: 27.) 


That this happened, not by chance, nor yet primarily 
because of the plots of His enemies (although their re- 
sponsibility is not denied), but above all by the will of 
God, as part of the redemptive plan, was emphatically de- 
clared by the apostle Peter in a public address delivered 
in Jerusalem within two months of the crucifixion, when 
he said: 

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of 
Nazareth, being delivered up by the determinate 
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye, by the 


hand of lawless men did crucify and slay’. (Acts 
2: 238.) 


The same sentiment is expressed in a prayer recorded 
in Acts 4: 27, 28: 


“O Lord, .... both Herod and Pontius Pilate, 
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were 
gathered together, to do whatsoever Thy hand and 
Thy counsel foreordained to come to pass.” 


In these and other passages it is emphatically asserted 
that Jesus did not need to die, that He was no passive vic- 
tim dragged against His will to a cruel death, but that He 
voluntarily gave Himself in accordance with a divine plan. 


Do the facts on record sustain any such view of the 
matter? They do, abundantly, as the attentive reader 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 109 


can not help but feel. One of the characteristic and strik- 
ing things about the gospels is the frequent recurrence of 
the phrases: “His hour had not yet come’, “Mine hour is 
not yet come’, and the like, showing that everything was 
moving according to program, a program that included 
His death eventually, but His death when the appointed 
hour had struck, not prematurely or at any arbitrary time. 


This is especially clear as one studies the narrative of 
that last tragic journey to Jerusalem. How uncalled-for 
it was, humanly speaking, yet how resolutely and stead- 
fastly undertaken! Jesus was in the prime of life—it was 
not yet time to die. He had labored publicly for only three 
years and, though He had some hundreds of adherents, 
there was still much to do. There were great communities 
of Jews in Alexandria, Antioch, and elsewhere ready to 
welcome Him, and besides that there was the great Gentile 
world to be evangelized. Why was it necessary for Him 
to go to Jerusalem, to certain death, at that time? There 
was no necessity at all, if you leave out the atoning pur- 
pose for which He came into the world. If you think of 
Him in merely human terms, He might far better have re- 
mained alive and continued His work. Yet we read that 
“Het set His face steadfastly to go up to Jerusalem” 
(Luke 9: 51). 


To think that He did so in the hope the nation might 
yet accept Him is flatly to contradict the record, which 
says that on repeated occasions He confided to His dis- 
ciples what was going to happen. Yet He went, and reso- 
lutely. We read this remarkable comment on His manner 
on that last tramp: “They were in the way going up to 
Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them (was striding 
on ahead) and they were amazed, and they that followed 
were afraid” (Mark 10: 32). 


On this journey, and during His first few days in Jeru- 


110 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


salem, Jesus took the most careful precautions against 
premature arrest. He started from Ephraim, a town about 
18 miles north of Jerusalem, and instead of going directly 
to the capital, He went northwards through Samaria and 
Galilee (Luke 7:11); no doubt to join the caravan of pil- 
grims going to the Passover feast. The secret of the situa- 
tion is that the Jewish authorities had no army, and only 
a very small police force. They could arrest an individual 
offender if they found him alone, but could not take a 
man from the midst of his friends. Hence the repeated 
comment, “They feared the people”. 


Traveling with this caravan of Galilean pilgrims, Jesus 
spent the night at Jericho, at the house of a prominent 
public official. The next day, still under protection of this 
caravan, He traveled toward Jerusalem, but took care not 
to enter the city and lodge there. He made His home at 
Bethany, where the townspeople entertained Him at a 
public supper in honor of the raising of Lazarus. So 
long as He remained there the chief priests could not 
seize Him. On Sunday He entered the capital, but by pre- 
arrangement a great crowd of His admirers came to meet 
and escort Him into the city. Every night thereafter He 
retired to Bethany, not appearing again until the temple 
courts were crowded with Galilean pilgrims. 


Under such circumstances the authorities were help- 
less. Nor had they, indeed, any intention of doing any- 
thing during the feast, for we read in Matthew 26: 5, that 
the following decision was reached by them two days be- 
fore the Passover, that is, on Tuesday of Passion Week: 
“They took counsel together that they might take Jesus 
with subtilty and kill Him, but they said: Not during the 
feast, lest a tumult arise among the people”. 


On the same day, however, Jesus announced to His dis- 
ciples that after two days He would be crucified. The 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 111 


event shows that it was He, and not they, who was in con- 
trol of the situation. Here we have the victim of a murder 
deciding the time when it is to take place, and choosing 
the very time when the murderers had decided not to do 
it! What a strange story if true, and stranger still if not 
true! What writer of fiction ever dared to conceive so 
bold a plot? 


Having decided to die within two days, Jesus calmly 
took measures accordingly. He delivered His final broad- 
side against His enemies on Tuesday of that week, and a 
terrific denunciation it is—read it in the twenty-third 
chapter of Matthew. Exasperated beyond endurance, the 
chief priests were ready to welcome the proposal of Judas, 
and he was watching for a chance to catch Jesus off His 
guard. That never came, but he did get an opportunity to 
betray Him, and he got it when Jesus was ready, not be- 
fore. Determined to celebrate the Passover on Thursday 
night within the city, and aware of the treachery of Judas, 
Jesus gave him no inkling of the place, but in the morning 
of that day sent His most trusty followers, Peter and John, 
to make the necessary preparations, giving them a secret 
signal by which they should find the house: They were to 
follow a man with a pitcher of water. Judas, therefore, 
had no means of knowing where it was to be until he was 
led to it in company with the rest of the apostles. 


Once all together safely in the upper room, nothing 
would have been easier than for Jesus to have said to the 
eleven faithful apostles: “Judas is plotting to betray Me; 
do not let him leave the room”; but instead of that He in- 
dicates to Judas in some private way that He is fully 
aware of his intentions, and then makes the amazing move 
of practically telling him to go and call the police. “Jesus, 
therefore, saith unto him, ‘What thou doest, do quickly’. 
Judas arose and went out into the night”. 


112 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


Then follow the farewell discourses, the institution of 
the memorial supper, the walk to Gethsemane, and the 
agony there. The shadow of the cross is over all of it, 
but not for one moment does Jesus lower the high tone of 
transaction by acting as if events had gotten beyond His 
control. To Peter, when that hasty disciple had drawn 
the sword, He says, ““Thinkest thou that I cannot beseech 
My Father, and He shall even now send Me more than 
twelve legions of angels?” When the men drew near to 
arrest Him, at a word from Him they fell to the ground, 
emphasizing their impotence to touch Him except with 
His consent. The next day, before Pilate, His attitude is 
the same. Making no effort to influence the governor in 
His own favor, He tells him plainly that He would have no 
power over Him except by God’s consent. 


This story of Good Friday, and of the evening that pre- 
ceeded it, is so familiar to most of us that we fail to see 
what an extraordinary situation is presented in the 
records. The last discourses, the foot-washing, the insti- 
tution of the Lord’s Supper, the warning to Peter, and the 
agony at Gethsemane all fit appropriately into the record, 
because we know what ts going to happen the next day, 
but if we try to divest ourselves of that knowledge, how 
passing strange it allis! We can understand farewells in 
the prospect of death, when disease or old age has almost 
claimed its victim, or when the hour for execution is fixed; 
but here was no sickness, no old age, no sentence of death. 
Jesus might easily have remained in Jerusalem in safety, 
and have joined the Galilean pilgrims on their homeward 
way. Then why all this solemn leavetaking, and this care- 
fully planned delivery of Himself into the hands of His 
foes as soon as the precise moment had come? How was 
it, humanly speaking, that He knew the end would come 
within twenty-four hours? 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 113 


To the man who tries to explain Jesus Christ in merely 
human terms, this problem, like so many others in con- 
_nection with Him, remains insoluble. Is he to say that no 
such transaction ever took place, that the narrative is leg- 
endary, mythical, or what not? Then how does fiction 
come to take a form so contrary to human experience, so 
utterly diverse from all other fiction ever written? On the 
other hand, if he admits that the narrative is true, but still 
holds: that Jesus was merely an ordinary human being, 
and His death like that of a martyr, then how are we to 
explain the facts as set forth above? ) 


From only one viewpoint is this record intelligible, 
consistent, and deeply significant, and that is the historic 
Christian conception of Jesus as the Divine Redeemer, 
who came to die an atoning death, and who therefore of 
set purpose so directed and controlled all events, that He 
brought about His own death, offering Himself a sacrifice, 
officiating as both priest and victim, giving Himself to the 
bitter and shameful death of the cross as a propitiation for 
our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the 
whole world. 


114 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XXVIII. 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 


IRTH AND DEATH are the two events that open and 
close the life-story of every man. The biographer 
may discuss a man’s ancestry, or the political conditions of 
his day; and he may have much to say about the influence 
exerted by his hero on succeeding generations; but the 
life-story as such begins with his birth and ends with his 
death. Fiction in this respect perforce follows life. No 
writer is so bold as to include in his novel what his hero 
did before he was born, or what he said and did after he 
was dead and buried. This is true of every man whose 
life-story is told in history or fiction, with one exception. 


That exception is Jesus Christ. 


Both in the epistles and in the gospels it is asserted 
that Jesus Christ existed as a conscious, living person be- 
fore His birth, and that He walked and talked with men 
after His death. As to His pre-existence we have passages 
like the following: 


“Before Abraham was, I am”. (John 8:58.) 


“What if ye should see the Son of Man as- 
cending where He was before’’? (John 6: 62.) 
“Though He was rich, for your sakes He be- 
came poor”. (2 Corinthians 8: 9.) 
“Who, existing in the form of God. 
emptied Himself . . being made in the like- 
ness of men”’. (Philippians 2:6.) whe 


; E 1 
These assertions concerning the pre-existence of Jesus 


Christ are, in the nature of the case, not subject to exam- 
ination or capable of proof by historical methods. A man 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 115 


will believe them or disbelieve them according to his gen- 
eral view of the Christian revelation. 


Far otherwise is it with the assertions made with re- 
gard to His activities after death. Some of these also, to 
be sure, such as sitting at the right hand of God, making 
intercession for us, sending the Holy Spirit, etc., are out- 
side the sphere where direct examination and proof are 
possible; but Christ’s resurrection, with its record of His 
having been seen by His disciples, talking with them, 
walking the streets in their company, sitting at table with 
them, eating fish and honey with them, etc., les entirely 
within the sphere of observable and provable facts. These 
allegations may be examined by the standard historical 
methods. If true, there must be witnesses to testify to 
them, and the credibility of their testimony is open to 
discussion. 


It is a common mistake, not seldom made by Chris- 
tians as well as by those who are not Christians, to think 
that the resurrection of Christ is believed by the Christian 
church on the basis of the inspiration of the Bible; putting 
belief in inspiration first, and belief in the resurrection 
later, as aresult of it. The fact is just the reverse. Belief 
in the inspiration of the New Testament, as we shall 
show later, follows the belief in the resurrection of Christ, 
and rests upon it. This is the historical order, for belief 
in the resurrection of Christ existed for nearly a genera- 
tion before the first New Testament documents were writ- 
ten, and two generations before these books were com- 
pleted; while general acceptance of them as inspired came 
a full hundred years after the faith in the resurrection be- 
gan. Because it is the historical order, it is also the log- 
ical order. In defending the truth of the resurrection we 
cannot assume inspiration, and shall not do so in this dis- 
cussion. After the resurrection has been shown to be true 


116 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


we have logically a good case for inspiration, not before. 
With all this it remains true that many an individual 
Christian, so far as his own faith is concerned, reverses 
the historical and logical process, accepting inspiration 
first and the resurrection upon the basis of that; but this 
is not true of the Christian church as such. _ 


The following is what the Christian church believes 
about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We believe that 
He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and that He died, 
in exactly the same sense as we say of any other man that 
he dies. We do not mean that His soul ceased to exist, 
because we do not mean that of any man when we say, 
“He is dead”. We confess that we do not know exactly 
what death is, but whatever it means to the ordinary 
human being, that is what it means when we say that 
Jesus died. He was really and truly dead, and if the 
usual course of nature had been followed, his body would 
have been subject to decay in the ordinary manner. 


We believe, however, that this did not take place. We 
believe that on the third day the body returned to life, 
left the tomb, and was seen, at various intervals, by 
credible and sober witnesses, at various hours of the day 
and night, but usually in broad daylight, for about six 
weeks. During these six weeks we believe that He visited 
His friends, walked, talked, ate and drank with them, and 
offered Himself to be handled by them. In these inter- 
views it was evident that His body had undergone a 
change, resulting in new capacities and qualities, and yet 
the scars it bore identified it as the same body that had 
died upon the cross and had been laid in the tomb. 


We believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ, so under- 
stood, to be an event that is not only true but provable, in 
exactly the same sense in which any other historical event 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 117 


is provable. We do not claim demonstration beyond the 
possibility of doubt. That is attained only in mathematics 
and the physical sciences; but we do claim to prove it “be- 
yond a reasonable doubt”; that is to say, we believe we 
can offer such proof as is constantly accepted in our 
courts of law and by students of history. 


Not only do we hold the resurrection of Christ to be 
provable, but we confidently rest the Christian case upon 
it. To believe what Christianity teaches without some sort 
of proof would be little better than superstition. We ad- 
mit that reasoned proof of the chief doctrines, separately 
considered, can not be produced; but we offer historical 
proof of the central facts: the life, death and resurrection 
of Jesus Christ. If the proof suffices to show that these 
things are worthy of belief, it is easy to see that belief in 
the doctrines must follow. If the proof of the. historical 
basis of Christianity is not sound, we have no case. 


In the question before us, therefore, we come to grips 
with the very core of the Christian problem. 


118 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XXIX. 
THE RESURRECTION AND THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. 


OTHING RECORDED in the New Testament is with- 

out value and importance, but the things there writ- 

ten are not all equally important. Some things are merely 

placed on record, or alluded to in passing, without any 

emphasis being placed upon them, and without their hay- 

ing, so far as we can see, any very vital relation to the 
general system of Christian thought. 


Very different is it with the resurrection of Christ. The 
more one studies the New Testament the clearer does it 
become that this one fact dominated the whole situation 
in the formative period of the Christian religion; that 
without it there would have been no Christian church, 
and that the early preachers of the faith put this into the 
foreground upon all occasions as the one great fact upon 
which they based everything they had to say. Let the 
reader take his Bible and go over the New Testament, 
with a red or blue pencil in hand, marking all the pas- 
sages where he finds a reference to the resurrection of 
Christ. He will be amazed to see how many and impor- 
tant are the places where it is found, and how constantly 
the point of the argument is made to rest upon this fact. 


The first thing he will notice, if he makes such a study, 
is that all four gospels relate the story of the resurrec- 
tion at length. This is unusual. Prior to the record of 
Passion Week, only one event is told by all four evan- 
gelists. This is the feeding of the five thousand. The Vir- 
gin Birth is related only in two gospels, those of Matthew 
and Luke; the Ascension likewise by only two, Mark and 
Luke. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 119 


If he goes on to the book of Acts he will find brief re- 
ports of eighteen or nineteen speeches delivered by the 
apostles, and in thirteen of these the resurrection is em- 
phasized. In the very first chapter he will find a report of 
a conversation between the risen Christ and His apostles, 
as well as the emphatic statement that He showed Him- 
self alive for forty days, by many proofs. Near the close 
of the same chapter he will find it laid down as the indis- 
pensable qualification of an apostle that he should be 
able to bear personal testimony to the resurrection, for 
this was the chief thing an apostle was appointed to do. 
“One of these must become a witness with us of His 
resurrection” (Acts 1: 22). This is confirmed by what St. 
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:1: “Am I not an apostle? 
Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” Also by Acts 4:38: 
“With great power gave the apostles their witness of the 
resurrection of the Lord Jesus’. 


A very interesting thing shown by the book of Acts is 
that this question of the*resurrection was the one great 
outstanding question at issue between the Christians and | 
their opponents. The very first arrest of the apostles is 
thus described: “The Sadducees came upon them, being 
sore troubled that they taught the people, and proclaimed 
in Jesus the resurrection from the dead” (Acts 4:2). St. 
Paul, before the Sanhedrin, stated the issue as follows: 
_ “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees, touching 
the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in 
question” (Acts 23:6). The Roman governor Porcius 
Festus had heard the Jews and St. Paul disputing back 
and forth in his presence, and to King Agrippa he summed 
up the essence of the controversy in the following words: 
“They had certain questions ... . of one Jesus, who was 
dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive”. That was exactly 
what Paul was always doing, wherever he went, affirm- 


120 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


ing this Jesus to be alive. He did the same thing in Athens, 
for the Athenians said: “He seemeth to be a setter forth 
of strange gods, because he preached Jesus and the resur- 
rection” (Acts 17: 18). 


When we turn to the epistles, whether those of Paul or 
the other epistles, we find the resurrection in the fore- 
ground constantly. All kinds of things are proven by in- 
sisting upon the certainty of it. Whatever might be 
doubted within the Christian church, this never. The 
ancient philosopher said: ‘Give me a place where I may 
stand to rest my lever, and I will move the world”. The 
early Christians had found it. They took their stand on 
the resurrection of Christ and they moved the world. 


Their conception of Christ was governed by the fact of 
His resurrection: “Who was declared to be the Son of 
God with power, by the resurrection from the dead’. 
(Romans 1:4.) Upon this fact rests the doctrine of justi- 
fication by faith: “He was delivered up for our trespasses 
and was raised for our justification” (Romans 4: 25). 
Christian ethics rests upon the same foundation: “That, © 
like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory 
of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life” 
(Rom. 6:4). The Christian hope of immortality is built 
upon the resurrection of Christ: “For if we believe that 
Christ died and rose again, even so them also that are 
asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him” (Thess. 4: 14). 
The same thing proves the certainty of the final judg- 
ment: “God hath appointed a day in which He will judge 
the world in righteousness by the Man whom He hath or- 
dained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in 
that He hath raised Him from the dead” (Acts 17: 31). 


. e : +i 
The epistle to the Hebrews is by some thought to have 
been written by St. Paul; others are sure that he did not 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 121 


write it. Whoever wrote it had the same faith about the 
resurrection of Christ, for we read in chapter 13, verse 20: 
“Now the God of Peace, who brought again from the dead 
the great Shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eter- 
nal covenant, even our Lord Jesus’’, etc. The fact was 
quite as fundamental to St. Peter’s view of Christianity as 
to St. Paul’s, for he says: “Blessed be the God and Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to His great 
mercy, begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1: 3). Finally, 
the book of Revelation closes the Christian revelation with 
a magnificent series of visions, but it starts with this well- 
attested fact: “J am the first and the last and the Living 
One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever more” 
(Revelation 1:18). 


Two things emerge with perfect clearness from any 
study of this kind (and we have merely touched the sur- 
face of the subject in this discussion), and these two things 
are: 


First, that the apostles and early Christians believed 
the resurrection of Jesus Christ to be a fact. They not 
only believed it, they staked everything upon it, including 
their own lives. Upon their faith in it our faith is founded. 


Second, that any one who cherishes a religious belief 
that does not include the resurrection of Jesus Christ from 
the dead, holds something that is not the historic Chris- 
tian faith, whatever else it may be. 


122 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XXX. 


THE EVIDENCE OF THE RESURRECTION. 
¥ 


HE STORY of the resurrection of Jesus, as we find it 
in the Bible, is so extraordinary and the conse- 
quences that follow from it, if true, are so tremendous, 
that very good evidence is required to prove it. This we 
cheerfully admit. Indeed, we Christians do not need to 
have this pointed out to us by others; we have too much at 
stake to overlook it. We have no wish to be deceived, or 
to deceive ourselves. St. Paul said long ago, with refer- 
ence to this very question, “If in this life we have nothing 
but a mere hope in Christ, we are of all men to be pitied 
most!” (Moffatt’s translation.) 


This has long been clearly recognized, and no other 
point in the history of Christ has received so much study 
as this. Much discussion has taken place, and many books 
have been written on the resurrection of Christ, with the 
result that the truth of it has been firmly established. 


Dr. Arnold, a famous historian, scholar, and educator, 
said of it more than a generation ago: 


“I have been used for many years to study the 
history of other times, and to examine and weigh 
the evidence of those who have written about 
them; and I know of no fact in the history of man- 
kind which is proved by better and fuller evi- 
dence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair 
inquirer, than the great sign which God has given 
us, that Christ died and rose again from the 
dead”. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 123 


Another great English scholar, Canon Westcott, says: 


“There is no single historic incident better or 


more variously supported than the resurrection 
of Christ’. 


Dr. Alfred Edersheim, a converted Jew, and perhaps 
the greatest of recent scholars on the life and times of 
Jesus, says of the resurrection: 


"It may unhesttatingly be pronounced the best 
established fact in history’. 


Dr. James Orr, of Glasgow, after a full examination of 
the most recent arguments against it, concludes by 
saying: 

“The resurrection of Jesus stands fast as a 
fact, unaffected by the boastful waves of scep- 


ticism that ceaselessly through the ages beat 
themselves against it’’. 


These statements represent, we believe, the conclusion 
reached by all careful students who are not prevented, by 
a prior rejection of the miraculous, from fairly examining 
the evidence. Those who reject it base their conclusions, 
so far as we have found, in every case, not upon the insuf- 
ficiency of evidence, but upon a fixed resolution not to 
accept any evidence, no matter how strong, for such a 
thing as the resurrection. Upon men who take such a stand 


as that, proof makes as little impression as water upon a 
duck’s back. 


In these brief articles it is, of course, impossible to do 
more than to present the barest outline of an argument to 
which volumes have been devoted. To readers who wish 
to study the matter further we recommend the following 
books, some or all of which are likely to be found in well- 
equipped public libraries: 


124 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


C. H. Morrison: The Proofs of Christ’s Resurrection — 
from a Lawyer’s Standpoint. | 


Canon Westcott: The Gospel of the Resurrection. 
James Orr: The Resurrection of Jesus. 

George Hanson: The Resurrection and the Life. 
J.M. Shaw: The Resurrection of Christ. 


In our own brief study let us start, as usual, with the ~ 
documents. We have already shown what an important » 
place the resurrection has in them. No one can read the — 
gospels and epistles without seeing that the early Chris- 
tians believed the resurrection of Christ to be a fact, in- — 
deed, the great fact upon which everything else rested. © 
Where had they gotten that faith? From the apostles, — 
for these were the men officially designated to testify to 
this event. No one could qualify as an apostle unless he © 
had seen the risen Redeemer. They were, however, not — 


the only witnesses, merely the officially designated ones. © 
The record names several women, and the two disciples — 
who went to Emmaus, as having seen the risen Christ. Itis 


implied in Acts 1: 22 that such men were rather numerous, ~ 
and this is confirmed by what St. Paul tells us in 1 Corin-— 
thians 15: 6, that Christ, after His resurrection, was seen — 
by more than five hundred brethren at once. The testi- 
mony of these witnesses has not been preserved, but in the | 


first years it must have been a powerful support to the — 


statements of the apostles. 


Under these circumstances is it conceivable that the 
story was made out of whole cloth; in other words, that 
those who testified to the resurrection were deliberately 
lying? This is the first question to be considered: Was 
the whole thing a fraud? 


The conditions existing seem to make that impossible. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 125 


There was no incentive to a fraud of that kind. Why 
should they try to make people believe that Christ had 
returned to life, if they knew He hadn’t? They gained no 
money by it—on the contrary. the early Christians gave 
away what they had. They gained no official position or 
popularity by it—on the contrary, they risked their lives, 
and all but one of the apostles died a martyr’s death. It 
would have been a fraud not very difficult to expose. 
Murder cases are constantly showing how difficult it is to 
dispose of a human body without detection. The Jewish 
authorities knew where Jesus had been buried, and they 
could either have produced Him or have proved what had 
become of Him. In the famous Matteotti murder case, 
now on trial in Italy, the body was found and identified 
about two months after death, which had occurred in the 
beginning of summer, June 10. Fifty days after the death 
of Jesus it was that Peter proclaimed His resurrection 
openly in the temple and charged the high priests with the 
murder. To find and identify the body should not have 
been difficult at that time. 


The theory of fraud involves the most obvious impossi- 
bilities. It means that the twelve apostles and scores of 
other persons, to the number of at least five hundred in 
all, must have conspired to tell a lie, with the idea of mak- 
ing other people believe in a Christ in whom they no 
longer believed themselves, and they would all have to 
tell a straight story under the cross-examination of the 
Jewish lawyers, well-versed in all the ways of false wit 
nesses. No one who has some experience in lying will 
believe it can be done. More yet, they would have to 
keep this up all their lives, all of them, with never a hint 
of the conspiracy leaking out; they would have to sacri- 
fice their lives (as they did) in support of the story; and 
when they came to die they would have to keep up the de- 


126 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


ception still, with the expectation (being devout Jews) of 
soon meeting in judgment a God of whom it is written: 
“Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord”. The more 
you think of it the more absurd it seems. 


This is admitted, even by the greatest antagonists of 
the Christian faith. Perhaps the most eminent of them all 
was David Friedrich Strauss, a German rationalist, but 
even he says: “There is no occasion to doubt that the 
apostle Paul heard this from Peter, James, and perhaps 
from others concerned, and that all of these, even the five 
hundred, were firmly convinced that they had seen Jesus 
who had been dead and was alive again”. So say they all. 
We know of no respectable scholar anywhere who does 
not admit the sincere belief of the apostles in their own 
testimony. This is a great admission, and we shall make 
full use of it in the rest of our discussion. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 127 


XXXII. 
THE EVIDENCE OF THE RESURRECTION. 
II. 


T IS ADMITTED on every hand that the apostles and 
other early Christians, in testifying that they had seen 
Jesus alive after His death, were sincere; they were stating 
what they believed to be true. If any one is still inclined 
to doubt it, we can suggest no better course than for him 
to read and re-read the record. The shining sincerity of 
the narratives and speeches will not fail to convince him 
that the apostles were no crooks, but honest men. 


“Very well, but that is no proof that what they said was 
true. Many people tell of having seen ghosts; they are 
entirely sincere about it, too! Others go to spiritualistic 
seances and see their dead relatives, even hold conversa- 
tions with them. They believe it, no question about that; 
but the rest of us don’t accept it, and testimony of that 
kind would not be considered worth anything in court. 
Then, there are other visions and hallucinations of all 
kinds on record. Why may not something of that kind 
have happened to make the apostles think they had seen 
Jesus?” 


This is, in general, what is meant by the “Vision 
Theory”. It looks plausible at first, but only at first; there 
is really nothing in it. Certainly there are ghost stories, 
plenty of them, but this very fact should be enough to 
show us that the resurrection narrative has nothing in 
common with them, for over against these numerous tales 
of ghosts and apparitions there ts one resurrection story 
in the whole history of the world, and one only. To be 
sure, there are nature myths, in some religions, in which 


128 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


the seasons are represented as death and resurrection, but 
nature myths of this kind are not history, and they can- 
not be fairly brought into comparison with history. There 
is no historical character of whose existence we have as- 
surance and of whose life we possess some details, of 
whom it has ever been told and believed that he rose from 
the dead, except Jesus Christ only. ~ 


Moreover, a ghost story has no relation at all to the 
resurrection of the body, and never suggests such a thing. 
Many people have believed that they had seen ghosts, but 
did you ever hear of a case where, on the strength of such 
a vision, they opened the grave to see whether the body 
was still there? The same is true of spiritualistic seances. 
That a man thinks he has seen his child or his mother at 
the seance, by means of the medium, gives him no impulse 
to go to the family cemetery to find out whether the body 
of the dear departed is still there. No one thinks of doing 
such things, because, in popular thought everywhere, the 
seeing of a man’s ghost is quite consistent with his body 
lying quietly in the grave. In the resurrection story, on 
the other hand, the empty grave is an essential element. 
Both Peter and Paul, in their preaching, emphasized the 
point that the body experienced no decay, but returned 
to life before decay had set in. (Acts 2: 29-31; 13: 36, 37.) 


In the gospel story the ghost story possibility is men- 
tioned, to be ruled out. Read Luke 24: 36-48. Here it is 
recorded that Jesus, to convince His disciples, showed 
them His hands and feet, and ate fish in their presence. 
Ever hear of a ghost doing that? Possibly this is one of 
the experiences referred to by Peter in his speech at.Casa- 
rea: “We did eat and drink with Him after He rose 
from the dead”. The empty grave and the eating and 
drinking with Him are parts of the primitive apostolic 
testimony, concerning which all are agreed that it was sin- 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 129 


cere. If so, you can’t think anything else than that it was 
the truth. No one can make a mistake about things like 
that. 


“But are there not other visions and hallucinations in 
which people think they see things that are not really 
there?” Certainly there are. The man who has delirium 
tremens is terribly sincere in his belief that he sees snakes, 
but there are no snakes. It is a hallucination. So there 
have been wonderful visions in all ages, some of them re- 
corded in the Bible, some in secular history. For some of 
these stories we have the greatest respect, as, for instance, 
for the visions of the Virgin Mary which Joan of Arc saw. 
We do not doubt her sincerity, but we do not admit that 
it was objectively real. This also was a hallucination. 


“Well, what is the difference? If the possibility of 
such hallucinations is conceded, may not the resurrection 
appearances have been of such a nature—real enough to 
the men who saw the visions, but not objectively a fact?” 


No, that is impossible. The conditions under which 
such hallucinations occur are well known, and they were 
not present in the resurrection stories. They take place 
under conditions of disease, as in delirium caused by fever; 
or in insanity; or in times of great excitement and intense 
expectation. They occur also to one person at a time, 
never to a group simultaneously. They occur more read- 
ily at night, or under conditions of dim vision, than during 
the daytime, more readily in a confined space than in the 
open. There is never anything left to prove their reality 
after they are over, they occur at any time, and it cannot 
be foretold when they will recur. 


In all of these particulars, the conditions of hallucina- 
tion were not present in the resurrection stories. The 
number and nature of the witnesses excludes the explana- 


130 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


tion of nervous disease. The apostles were of the ordi- 
nary working class, twelve in number, accustomed to out- 
of-door life, the very class among whom hallucinations 
are least likely to occur. Associated with them in this ex- 
perience were five hundred others. The required condition 
of intense expectancy was not present. When the women 
went to the grave they carried spices, to anoint a dead 
body, not with the idea of meeting a risen Lord. Three 
days had elapsed since the excitement of the crucifixion, 
and the reaction of complete discouragement had set in. 
Jesus appeared to the disciples once or twice at night, but 
on several occasions in broad daylight, as they were walk- 
ing along the road, or as they were fishing in the lake. 
He did this from time to time for forty days, and then, 
after a formal leave-taking on the hillside, He ascended to 
heaven, and the appearances ceased. Finally, there is al- 
ways the fact of the empty grave, to prove that what they 
saw was real. All of this is utterly and irreconcilably at 
variance with the way visions and hallucinations are 
experienced. 


In this connection the significance of St. Paul’s state- 
ment that above five hundred brethren saw the Lord at 
one time, must not be overlooked. Strauss mentions this 
as one of the things not to be doubted, that they were 
sincere in thinking they had so seen Christ. Paul includes 
this statement in a letter to a church where he had bitter 
enemies, who would have delighted to have exposed him 
as a fraud or irresponsible if they could have done so. 
Now, these five hundred must have been notified of the 
time and place of the rendezvous; and, as the adherents 
of Jesus were scattered throughout the towns and villages 
of Galilee, this task must have occupied the apostles for 
a great part of the forty days. Then, at the appointed 
time, Christ met them. You don’t have hallucinations in 
such a way! 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 131 


The fact is, that the things the apostles say about their 
experiences with the risen Christ are such things as no 
sane persons could honestly say if they were not true. If 
they had given such testimony in court, under oath, and if 
the thing were afterwards disproved, they would have 
been justly liable to prosecution for perjury. We cannot 
believe that they were dishonest; even our opponents 
agree to this. Likewise, we find no reason to think they 
were the victims of any hallucination. The only thing left 
is to believe that it was true; that Christ did indeed rise 


from the dead. 


132 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XXXII. 
INDIRECT EVIDENCE OF THE RESURRECTION. 


E HAVE, so far, considered only the direct testimony 

of the apostles, and have shown reasons for believ- 
ing that it is neither fraudulent or due to anything like 
hallucination; but in addition to this testimony there are 
certain broader considerations to which attention must be 
directed. These larger considerations, although their 
bearing upon the credibility of the narrative is indirect, 
yet tend very greatly to strengthen it, and to explain the 
unshakable faith of the Christian church. 


The first and most important of these larger considera- © 
tions is that the resurrection fits in so well with the gen- 
eral portrait of Jesus Christ drawn for us in the gospels 
and epistles. There is an admirable suitability, a supreme 
congruity, about it that carries conviction. We have from 
time to time, in these discussions, in various connections, 
emphasized the fact that the New Testament documents 
set before us the conception of the pre-existent Word of 
God, who for us men and for our salvation became man 
and remained with us for a time. This incarnation of 
God, for the purpose of saving a lost world, is the very 
heart of the Christian religion. In the gospels and epistles 
such a being is portrayed before us. The manner in which 
He was born, the way He taught, the miracles He wrought, 
His compassion for sinful and sorrowing humanity, His 
wrath against hypocrisy, His sinless character, His tran- 
scendent claims, so calmly and quietly put forward, are all 
in beautiful harmony with the conception of such a divine 
Redeemer. So is also the description of His death, as be- 
ing not overwhelmed by the plots and cruelty of His ene- 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 133 


mies, but as giving Himself voluntarily to die for men. To 
crown it all comes this resurrection story, a superb climax 
to such a life and such a personality. We feel at once that 
if the central conception of an incarnate God is true, this 
must needs be so. Peter expresses our sentiments exactly 
when he says: “It was not possible that HE should be 
holden of death”. 


Now if we could think for a moment that this whole 
story was fiction, we should be lost in admiration of the 
genius who could imagine such a plot; but if there is any- 
thing certain it is that this is not fiction; it is what it pur- 
ports to be, a story from life. This being so, the congruity 
of all its parts, and especially the supreme suitability of 
such a finish to such a life, very powerfully help to incline 
us to an acceptance of the resurrection. We might find it © 
difficult, no matter on what testimony, to believe that an 
ordinary man rose from the dead—we need not find it so 
difficult to believe it of Jesus Christ. 


The resurrection testimony is the keystone of the 
Christian arch, but the keystone is never the whole arch. 
The right and left columns are kept in place by it, but they 
also support it. Each part leans upon and supports the 
other parts. So it is with the resurrection of Christ. The 
direct testimony is indispensable, but the credibility of 
the event has also other supports. The character of Jesus 
Christ, as we have seen, is the right column of the arch; 
what is the left? 


It is the rise of the Christian church. Leave out the 
resurrection, and this is an utterly inexplicable fact. Other 
religions, to be sure, as well as philosophical systems, have 
arisen without resurrections, but that is because they 
aimed at nothing more than to expound the teachings of 
their founders. They did not call men to faith in these 


134 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


founders as redeemers, able to save to the uttermost all 
that put their trust in them. Hence a dead founder was 
good enough. The rise of the Christian religion, and of 
the Christian church as the trustee of that religion, pre- 
sents a very different problem to the historian. Here it is 
no question of perpetuating and expounding the teachings 
of the founder—those teachings are never quoted or re- 
ferred to in the extant documents for a whole generation! 
Here it is a question from the start of winning men to 
trust in a living Lord, Who once was dead. That such a 
body as the Christian church, with such a message, arose 
in the days of Tiberius, emperor of Rome, is beyond ques- 
tion, and the problem is: How is this to be explained? 
Without the resurrection, this is inexplicable—with the 
resurrection everything is clear. All this powerfully sup- 
ports the direct testimony to the effect that Jesus rose 
from the dead. As some one has well said: “The supreme 
proof of the resurrection of Christ is the resurrection of 
Christianity”. 


The weekly Lord’s Day is another witness to the same 
fact. For ages the day of rest and worship had been the 
seventh day of the week. This was in commemoration of 
the creation of the world, and rested on the highest pos- 
sible sanction, the direct command of God from Sinai. 
Yet, within the first century this day is dropped by the 
Christian church, and the first day of the week is substi- 
tuted, all without division, objection, or controversy! This 
can be explained upon no other ground than the sponta- 
neous desire of the early Christians to remember week by 
week an event so great that for them it threw into the 
shade even the creation of the world. Thus this change 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 135 


of day remains among us, a reliable witness to some out- 
standing event in the early church, and it powerfully 
buttresses the other historical proofs. 


The Easter festival is a similar proof. We now cele- 
brate Christmas as well, and in most churches more is 
made of this than of Easter, which is a sad commentary 
on the decline of faith. Any one can join in celebrating 
the birth of Jesus, for that need not mean more than a 
recognition of Him as one of the greaf men of history; but 
no one but a Christian can really celebrate Easter. The 
early church thought so much of this festival that the first 
great controversy in the church, in sub-apostolic days, was 
about the right time and manner of celebrating it. Itis on 
record that it was discussed between Polycarp and the 
Bishop of Rome in 155 A. D., when the former visited the 
Imperial City. 


Finally, one of the reasons why men believe the resur- 
rection of Christ, will always be its supreme fitness to meet 
our human need of light upon the problem of life and 
death. By this it is that life and immortality have been 
brought to light. To those who cling to the conviction that 
human life must be worth something, that there must be 
somewhere permanent meaning and value in it, the resur- 
rection of Jesus Christ is like the dawning of the day. It 
is congruous to the deepest and highest things in man, 
and as long as these things appeal to us, the credibility of 
the resurrection will draw from this congruity no small 
measure of support. 


Take all these things together, and you will see that the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ is no isolated occurrence. To 


136 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


get the full force of the evidence in its favor, you must 
think of it in connection with the gradually unfolding plan 
of redemption revealed even in the Old Testament, with 
the prophecies of the coming Messiah, with the character 
and acts of Jesus, with the outburst of spiritual energy in 
the first century, with the rise and institutions of the 
Christian church, with the magnificent stream of moral 
uplift that flows from it down the ages, and with the pro- 
foundest needs of the human race. The narrative of an 
event that fits them all and throws light upon them all is 
no idle or superstitious tale: is ts the supremely credible 
record of the greatest event in human history. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 137 


XXXII. 
THE RESURRECTON AND REVEALED RELIGION. 


R. FRANZ DELITZSCH, the distinguished German 

Hebrew scholar, in the preface to his commentary on 
Genesis, after speaking of the immense labor bestowed 
upon it, says: “Nevertheless the praise of full and com- 
plete scholarship will still be withheld from it. For the 
spirit of this commentary remains unaltered .... J be- 
lieve in the Easter announcement and accept its de- 
ductions”’. 


What in the world has the Easter announcement got 
to do with a scholarly study of the book of Genesis? 
_ Everything, for he who believes the resurrection of Christ 
to be a fact must accept its deductions, which means that 
he must and will accept Christianity as a revealed reli- 
gion. He who does that can not hold the same views of 
the Old Testament as he who does not. 


To the man who accepts it, the resurrection of Christ 
fully establishes the truth of the central proposition of the 
Christian religion, that God was incarnated in Jesus 
Christ. Christ Himself said that He was the pre-existent 
Son of God who had come into the world for the redemp- 
tion of mankind, the long-expected Messiah. When asked 
for proof of this exalted claim, He appealed to His resur- 
rection. If one accepts the resurrection narrative as true, 
it can not be denied that Jesus was what He said He was. 
He “was declared to be the Son of God with power ..... 
by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1: 4). 


f 
From this authentication of Jesus as the divine Re- 
deemer, the promised Messiah, we can work confidently 


138 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


backward to the inspiration of the Old Testament, and 
forward to that of the New. As to the Old Testament, 
Christ so frequently and emphatically taught it to be the 
Word of God that no one who accepts His authority in 
matters of religion can logically reject its inspiration. 
He said: 

“Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or 


one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law 
till all things be accomplished”. (Matthew 5: 18.) 


“The scriptures can not be broken”. (John 
10: 35.) 


“Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not 
the scriptures’? (Mark 12: 24.) 


“Ye search the scriptures, because ye think 
that in these ye have eternal life, and these are 
they which bear witness of Me’. (John 6: 39.) 


These are but a few of His utterances along this line. 


His whole attitude toward the Old Testament and His 
frequent quotation of it as authority shows how He looked 
upon it. 


Now the question: “Did Jesus rise from the dead?” is 
decisive with regard to the reliability of such teaching. 
The man who believes that the resurrection story is not 
true can have no other idea of Jesus than that He was at 
best a misguided enthusiast, mistaken about Himself, and 
therefore probably mistaken about the Old Testament. 
To such a man, the problems of the Old Testament must 
be settled upon ordinary historical principles, without any 
admixture of divine revelation or divine intervention. 
This produces a certain kind of scholarship, which offers 
its interpretation of the facts of Hebrew history and re- 
ligion. The solutions it offers are in many respects very 
unsatisfactory, for the said interpretation leaves great 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 139 


‘ gaps that can not be filled up, and grave questions that can 
not be answered; yet these solutions are accepted by 
many, because they are the only ones that can be reached 
by this method. 


The man, on the contrary, who accepts the resurrection 
of Jesus as a well-established fact, must regard the utter- 
ances of a teacher so attested as true, and with this as his 
fixed point of departure, he also engages in historical 
study, seeking to interpret the course of the history. He, 
too, offers a solution of the problems involved, and it is 
a very different solution from that reached by the other 
man. His solutions often fail to satisfy, for important and 
baffling questions remain; and yet, since these solutions 
are demanded by his method, he must be content with 
them, so long as he is not ready to throw his method over- 
board. This he can not do so long as he remains a disciple 
of Christ, and to reject the authority of the Master is im- 
possible so long as he believes the resurrection to be a fact. 


This is the secret of the never-ending dispute between 
conservative Christian scholars and others on the prob- 
lems of the Old Testament. The widely diverging conclu- 
sions reached are due not to a difference of scholarship or 
of scientific methods, but to the difference in the point of 
departure. One side “believes the Easter message and 
accepts its deductions”; the other does not. 


Much the same process leads to the acceptance of the 
New Testament as inspired. We have taken the New 
Testament documents, so far, in these discussions merely 
as books written in good faith by men who had an oppor- 
tunity to know the facts, and therefore as reliable in the 
same manner as ordinary human writings. On that basis 
we found reason to accept the resurrection of Christ. If 
we do this, as already pointed out, then we must accept 


Jesus as the divine Redeemer and authoritative Teacher. 
If so, we must accept the apostles also, not merely as 

credible witnesses of observed facts, but as organs of reve- | 
lation, inspired interpreters of the said facts; for Christ 

authorized and appointed them to act as such. Pointing 

to specific passages is almost superfluous, for it seems © 
clear that no one can believe that God was incarnated 
for the purpose of saving mankind, and then neglected to 
leave behind authoritative teachers of these things. Yet, 
to place the matter beyond dispute, we invite the reader 
to consider such texts as the following: 


140 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES Li 
i 
| 


“T have many things to say unto you, but ye 
cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when He, the 
Spirit of truth is come, He shall guide you into 
all truth’. (John 16:12, 138.) 


“Verily I say unto you, what things soever ye 
shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and 
what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall 
be loosed in heaven’’. (Matthew 18:18.) 


“He that heareth you heareth Me, and he that 
rejecteth you rejecteth Me”. (Luke 10: 16.) 


8, ta sed a meee he TEU re ps eee Se eM Restate meben Des6Sk 


This authority of the apostles was accepted without 
question in the early church. We read that “of the rest 
durst no man join himself unto them’, so unique was the 
position of an apostle. In strict accord with this is the 
claim of the apostle to be such inspired teachers. St. 
Paul says: “The gospel which was preached by me is not 
after man, for neither did I receive it from man, nor wasI — 
taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus — 
Christ (Galatians 1:12). St. John says practically the © 
same thing when he insists that “We are of God: he that 
knoweth God heareth us; he who is not of God heareth us 
not, by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of © 
error’. . 





OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 141 


zs Now in regard to every claim of this kind on the part of 

» the apostles the decisive thing is our faith in the resur- 
rection of Christ. .You can not dissociate that central 
~ event from the rest of history. Accept it and you are 
- bound to accept the apostles as authorized founders of 
the Christian church and teachers of the Christian revela- 
tion. Reject it and you must make what explanation you 
can of the whole course of events—and a difficult task 
indeed you will find it to be. In any case, we do not see 

what firm ground you will then have for accepting the 
- Christian religion as a revelation from God. 





142 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


: XXXIV. 
THE MYSTERY OF THE ATONING DEATH. 


EK BELIEVE the Easter message and accept its de- 

ductions, the chief of which is that Jesus Christ is 
the Divine Redeemer. Since He appointed the apostles as 
His authorized spokesmen, and guaranteed the truth of 
their teaching, a further deduction is that what they teach 
is a divine revelation, and ought to be accepted as such. 
From this point on we propose to inquire into their teach- 
ings as to the way of reconciliation between ourselves, as 
sinful men, and God, the holy and righteous ruler, whose 
laws we have broken. 


On a point like this we need a revelation. The opinion 
of no man is worth a row of pins. To have a fair opinion 
one would need to be in possession of all the data and 
would have to be able to reason with correctness upon 
them. No man either has the one or can do the other. 
The apostles, considered apart from their office as organs 
of revelation, were no better off in this respect than the 
rest of us. We are debtors before the moral law, spirit- 
ually bankrupt. For an adjustment of the debtor’s obliga- 
tions it is of no importance what he thinks or what his 
fellow-debtors think; the only thing that counts is what 
the creditor thinks—what terms he is willing to grant. 


The apostles were set in the church by the risen Christ 
to tell us what God thinks on such subjects, and therefore 
we accept their teaching as inspired and authoritative. 
We do our best to understand what they teach and to re- 
late it to our other knowledge; and if we can do this we 
are glad. If we can not we believe it anyway. If we can 
find evidence elsewhere that confirms it, well and good; 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 143 


but if we cannot we accept the apostolic teaching without 
evidence, because their authority is evidence enough for 
us. On many things they teach, and these the most impor- 
tant, we have no other evidence, and expect we never shall 
have, because they transcend the capacity of the human 
mind. 


We know that by taking this position we are setting 
ourselves down, in the minds of some, as hopelessly be- 
hind the times. If we only had the “modern” point of 
view we could not be so foolish. This doesn’t trouble us 
much. We fail to see anything so very “modern” about 
the rejection of apostolic authority, inasmuch as there 
were plenty of people who did that in the first century. 


The things which the apostles teach that came to them, 
not by study, neither through their own reasoning powers, 
but that “came to them through revelation of Jesus Christ” 
(Gal. 1: 22), are sometimes called “mysteries”, and it is in 
this sense that we use the word in the title of this article. 


The death and resurrection of Jesus are not mysteries 
in this sense, but things that lay in the realm of out- 
wardly observable facts and are proved in the same man- 
ner as other historical events. Their significance, how- 
ever, is a mystery, for without an inspired exposition it is 
safe to say that there could not have arisen such an inter- 
pretation of them as the Christian Church has held from 
the beginning—the interpretation that has made the cross, 
that emblem of death and shame, the symbol of salvation. 


The New Testament teaches us that Christ died for us 
in order that through His death we might obtain the for- 
giveness of sins and everlasting life. 


“The Son of Man came... . to give His 
life, aransom for many’”’. (Matthew 20: 28.) 


144 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


“This is My body, which is given for you”’. 
(Luke 22: 19.) 


“This is My blood, which is shed... . for 
the remission of sins’. (Matthew 26: 28.) 


‘He was delivered for our offences and was 
raised again for our justification”. (Rom. 5: 25.) 


“Whom God set forth to be a propitiation, 
through faith, in His blood .... that He Him- 
self might be just, and the justifier of him that 
hath faith in Jesus’. (Rom. 3: 25, 26.) 


‘Who His ownself bare our sins, in His own 
body, on the tree”. (1 Peter 2: 24.) 


‘‘He is the propitiation for our sins and not for 
ours only, but also for the sins of the whole 
world’) (1 John'2* 2.) 


“Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on 
our behalf’’. (2 Corinthians 5: 21.) 


Such passages might be indefinitely multiplied, as 
every Bible reader knows. This is the great theme of the 
New Testament, outside the gospels and the Acts of the 
Apostles. St. Paul repudiates the idea that anything else 
is worth discussing in comparison with this. “For I de- 
termined not to know anything among you, save Jesus 
Christ and Him crucified’. (1 Cor. 2: 2). When he wishes 
to sum up in the briefest possible manner the essence of 
the gospel, as he and the other apostles preached it, he 
says: “I delivered unto you first of all that which also I 
received, that Christ died for our sins according to the 
scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He hath been 
raised on the third day” (1 Cor. 15: 3). In the same chap- 
ter he says: 


“Tf Christ hath not been raised your faith is 
vain, ye are yet in your sins. Then also they that 
have fallen asleep in Christ have perished”. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 145 


Canon Westcott, in his great work, The Gospel of the 
Resurrection, calls particular attention to this verse, 
pointing out that the persons addressed were already re- 
pentant and believing Christians. The subjective attitude 
of repentance and faith avails nothing, without the great 
objective transaction of Good Friday and Easter. 


The teaching of the New Testament, then, is this, that 
the death of Jesus on the cross, which in its outward his- 
torical aspect is nothing more than a judicial murder, is 
in its inner aspect a supremely important transaction in 
the spiritual world. It is the taking upon Himself by the 
eternal Son of God of the responsibility which sinful men 
had incurred before the tribunal of a holy God. By bear- 
ing this responsibility He made it possible for a just God 
to forgive the sins of all who repent and believe without 
- losing his own self-respect as the moral ruler of the uni- 
verse. It is not that Christ’s death made God willing to 
forgive—He was more than willing all-the time. Neither 
is it that the cross makes men willing to be reconciled 
to God. However willing both parties might be, there re- 
mained yet an insuperable obstacle to be overcome, in the 
eternal fitness of things, by which sin and penalty are 
rivted together. This obstacle could not be overcome in 
any way but by Christ’s taking upon Himself the respon- 
sibility for-human sin. 


This doctrine of the atoning death is a mystery, and 
has always been received as such by the Christian church. 
It is inexcusable to say that the theologians have invented 
the doctrine of the atonement—the New Testament is full 
of it. It is scarcely more excusable to speak of it as a 
“Pauline” doctrine—it was held by the whole church. 


146 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


Perhaps the most profoundly inexcusable thing to say is 
that it is the “view” or “opinion” of Paul and other 
apostles. It would have no value for us if that were so. 
We do not care a snap of our fingers for the opinions of St. 
Paul, or of any other man on such a point. This doctrine 
is so strange, in some respects so repellant, and yet, if 
true, of such transcendent majesty and glory, that it is not 
worthy of the least confidence so long as we regard it as 
originating in the reasonings of a human mind. Revela- 
tion, and revelation alone, can entitle it to our acceptance. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 147 


XXXV. 
THE OFFENSE OF THE CROSS. 


E HAVE called the doctrine of atonement through 

the death of Christ a strange thing, and so itis. To 
say that the judicial murder of some one nearly two thou- 
sand years ago opened the way to the forgiveness of sins 
committed today—what can be stranger than that? 


We have called it likewise a repellant doctrine. We 
might have used a stronger word and called it repulsive, 
for so it is to many people. “The idea”, they exclaim, “to 
imagine that a good and loving Heavenly Father should 
have to have some one killed before He can forgive! What 
a crude and savage conception of God! He is not a re- 
vengeful, blood-thirsty deity. He is like the father in the 
parable of the Prodigal Son, always on tip-toe to welcome 
the returning sinner. Away with the blood atonement! 
We can not abide it!” 


So it is now, so it was of old. 


‘‘We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a 
stumbling-block, and unto Gentiles foolishness; 
but unto them that are called, both Jews and 
Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom 
of God; because the foolishness of God is wiser 
than men, and the weakness of God is stronger 
than men’. (1 Corinthians 1: 23, 24.) 


This doctrine of the crucified Christ, so offensive to 
the Jews and so foolish to the Gentiles of the first century, 
has lost none of its offensiveness to the spiritual counter- 
parts of the former, or of its absurdity to those of the lat- 
ter, in the twentieth century. Yet it abides among us, and 
is today the standard Christian doctrine, as it was then. 


148 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


How do you account for such vitality in a doctrine appar- 
ently so offensive and so foolish? It is because, as St. 
Paul says: “The foolishness of God is wiser than men, 
and the weakness of God is stronger than men”. Call it 
foolishness if you will, it is still wiser than any human 
philosophy. Call it absurd if you dare, but be honest 
enough to admit that this absurdity has done more for the 
moral regeneration of mankind than all other systems of 
philosophy and religion combined. 


It is undeniable that there is some element of great 
strength in the doctrine of the cross, or it would have lost 
its hold on men by this time. Wherein does it lie? It lies 
first in the evidence of the resurrection of Christ, whereby 
it becomes necessary to find some adequate reason for the 
whole transaction, then in the evidence whereby the 
apostles are accredited as organs of revelation, and finally 
in the way this doctrine satisfies the conscience. 


One of the profoundest, most permanenf, and most 
compelling convictions of the human soul is what we call 
the “moral consciousness”, the perception of right and 
wrong. Inseparable from this is the persuasion that he 
who does wrong will suffer for it. He “deserves” to suffer 
and somewhere, somehow, he will get his deserts. - 


This conviction is not the result of experience, for ex- 
perience appears to contradict it; and yet the conviction 
remains. Neither is it the result of systematic thinking, 
for it is quite as strong in races and individuals who have 
no philosophy as in those that do; indeed, systematic 
thinking, like experience, is more likely to weaken than 
to strengthen it. Yet how impressive are the universality 
and strength of this conviction! Mythology, poetry, phi- 
losophy and religion alike are full of it. It is the origin 
of the “Kharma” doctrine, the heart of Buddhism, as well 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 149 


as of the atonement, the heart of Christianity. All the 
various conceptions of hell and judgment, advanced and 
crude, are built upon it. It underlies all criminal law, in 
all countries, whether in ancient or modern times. 


Wherever this conviction of the oughtness of penalty 
is strong and vivid among men, criminal law will be well 
enforced; where it grows dim, lawlessness will be ram- 
pant. The increase of crime among us is due in no small 
measure to the prevalence of the doctrine that criminal 
law is merely a means to safeguard life and property. It 
is that, of course, but if this is all it is, then it is no more 
than a scheme whereby the majority of the people in any 
community combine to secure their own comfort, as 
against a few who would disturb it. Law becomes then 
not upholding the right, but a move in a game played be- 
tween the “haves” and the “have nots”, in which numbers 
and organization are on the side of the “haves”, with skill 
and courage on the side of the “have nots”. There is no 
moral majesty about that! That isn’t the way criminal 
law came into existence, and in proportion as this concep- 
tion takes the place of the older idea of punishing crime 
because of its intrinsic ill desert, in that proportion the 
majesty of the law will be brought low and its power 
weakened among us. The oughtness of penalty is the 
vital breath of the law. 


In the Holy Scriptures, this moral necessity of penalty 
is based upon the character of God. Because God is God, 
therefore right is right, immutably, and therefore sin must 
and will be punished, inexorably. He is a just and holy 
God, and therefore He will by no means clear the guilty. 
This is not contrary to the doctrine of the love of God. 
Indeed, the more you emphasize the teaching that God is 
love, the more you are driven to see that if He punishes sin 


150 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


at all then He does it under the pressure of a tremendous 
moral necessity. He is a loving God, and therefore He 
would not do it if He did not have to do it. Unless you 
are ready to say there is no penalty for sin, therefore, the 
more you take to heart the teaching that God is love, the 
more clearly you must see that there is an intrinsic and 
inexorable oughtness of penalty. 


Hence arises the problem how God can ever forgive 
sin; for if the sinner is forgiven, he is not punished, as the 
law demands that he shall be. It is no answer to this to 
say that the sinner has repented. What is there about re- 
pentance that cancels the oughtness of penalty? That 
rests not upon anything that took place after the commis- 
sion of the sin, like his continued impenitence, but upon 
the fact itself of his wrong-doing. The oughtness of pen- 
alty is intrinsic in the sin itself, since we live under a 
moral order. It is not added thereto by other circum- 
stances, and therefore no other circumstance, not even his 
repentance, can alter it. Was his repentance needed to 
calm down God’s resentment and make Him willing to 
forgive? Not atall. Being the God of Love, He was more 
than willing, even eager all the time, to stay His hand, but 
the compelling moral necessity of penalty inherent in His 
holy nature would not permit Him to do so. How, then, 
can repentance make any difference? Sin demands pun- 
ishment, absolutely, and that demand can not be ig- 
nored without wrenching the moral order from its base in 
the nature of an immutable and holy God. 


This is the problem of forgiveness, not inaptly styled 
by old Dr. Thomas Chalmers, “a problem fit for a God”. 
(We take this from The Fact of Christ, by F. Carnegie 
Simpson, which is the most satisfying discussion of the 
atonement we have seen.) This problem is one that 
earnest men in non-Christian countries perceive. Thor- 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 151 


oughgoing Buddhists reject absolutely the notion that for- 
giveness is possible. Nothing in heaven or upon earth, 
they say, can stay the operation of “Kharma”, the dread 
law of retribution. A thoughtful Japanese, who had heard 
of forgiveness, but had not yet been instructed in the doc- 
trine of the atonement, wrote to a missionary: “Forgive- 
ness of sins seems too simple, almost trifling and un- 
moral”. He was right. Without the cross of Christ, for- 
giveness would be trifling with the moral order. 


If the problem was one fit for a God, the solution is 
one worthy of God. In the person of Jesus Christ, His 
only-begotten and eternal Son, God Himself became incar- 
nate, and took upon Himself the responsibility of the 
broken law; bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. 


“He was wounded for our transgressions, He 
was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of 
our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we. 
are healed’’. 


Thus the majesty of the law is maintained, the moral 
order is vindicated, and yet God is free to forgive, because 
Jesus Christ has become our surety. One question, how- 
ever remains, and that a serious one, which we shall dis- 
cuss in our next chapter. 


152 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XXXVI. 
THE MYSTERY OF THE MYSTIC UNION. 


OU SAY that Christ bore the penalty of sin, but how 

is it possible for a just God to accept a substitute? 

This is not what the law demands, that some one shall suf- 

fer. The soul that sinneth, IT shall die, not some other 
soul for it!” 


The answer to this objection lies in the “mystery”, that 
is, the revealed truth of the mystic union between Christ 
and the believer. They are no longer two, but one. They 
coalesce in such a manner that no judgment can be pro- 
nounced upon the one that does not include the other. Is 
the believer a sinner? Then Christ is also in some sense 
a sinner, not personally, but by virtue of this union. Has 
Christ satisfied the broken law? Then those united with 
Him have satisfied it, too. We speak of Christ as our 
substitute, and of the atonement as a vicarious atonement, 
and in a general sense this is true; but in a stricter sense 
what takes place is not substitution but union. 


fer us illustrate that by the case of a merchant who is 
about to go bankrupt: liabilities, one hundred thousand 
dollars; assets, nothing. If some great capitalist, like 
John D. Rockefeller, or Henry Ford, should come along 
and wish to help him, he might do it by paying his debts; 
but, after that, in what position is the poor man? He has 
no debts, but also he has nothing else! His rich friend 
might in addition to paying his debts, give him new capi- 
tal to start business again. That would be better, but if the 
cause of failure was his own business incapacity, he is 
likely to go bankrupt again. But now suppose that one of 
these men, not only great capitalists but splendid business 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH _ 153 


men, as they are, should go into an unlimited partnership 
with the bankrupt on condition that the rich friend shall 
be manager of the firm, then what is the position? A cer- 
tain amount of capital is invested, but in addition to that, 
it being an unlimited liability firm, every cent the great 
capitalist has stands back of the business. The position of 
the new firm, which takes over all the obligations of the 
old one, is then as follows: “Liabilities, one hundred 
thousand dollars; assets and reserves, a hundred million!” 
With such a partnership, under such direction, is not every 
requirement met? Now, in one sense, we can say that 
his rich friend has paid the debts of the bankrupt. 
Certainly they are gone, so far as he is concerned. He 
is now a member of an entirely solvent firm and has no 
personal debts. Yet, in a stricter sense, there has been 
no payment by any one not truly responsible. 


So it is between Christ and the believer. There is a new 
firm, “CHRIST AND SINNER’, and the members of this 
firm stand before the judgment seat of God, not as two 
separate individuals, but as one firm, with Jesus Christ 
as the responsible head. Hence God has no choice but to 
lay upon Him the iniquity of the sinner whom He has 
taken into union with Himself. He has taken upon Him- 
self the responsibility, and He must discharge it. 


Does not this relieve the difficulty felt in the matter of 
substitution of the one for the other? “Not very much”, 
you say, “for who ever heard of such a partnership in 
moral issues? Financial illustrations carry very little 
weight when the thing under discussion is not financial 
but moral. Guilt is quite another thing from business 
debts”. 


Quite so. Our illustration does not cover the whole 
case, we know that; but it does cover this point, that where 


154 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


union takes place, we have the effect of substitution with- 
out an irresponsible putting of one party in the place of 
another. There are various sorts of union, and all of them 
are necessary to illustrate various phases of the mystic 
union between Christ and the believer, which is the most 
mysterious of them all. 


The illustration of grafting, as employed_in. gardening, 
is moré like the.union_in_ question, in that it is in the 
sphere of a communicated life-force. Here is a twig cut 
off from the tree on which it originally grew. It will wither 
and die unless another life is substituted for _its own, 
which is rapidly passing away. So the gardener grafts it 
upon another stem, and lo, it grows into organic oneness 
with it, so that it-has new life for the old which it lost. 
The effect of substitution has been obtained by a vital 
process, for the life of the tree was not carried over me- 
chanically, but flowed into the twig by a living union 
between it and the tree. So the believer is said to~be 
engrafted into Christ by true faith. 


There is also the union of true marriage, used as an 
illustration of the mystic union by the Apostle Paul. A 
man and a woman at first live their two lives as entirely 
distinct people. The man is not responsible for the woman. 
If he does anything for her it is by way of voluntary kind- 
ness; but if he receives her into relation with himself as 
his wife, then the situation is altered. There has been a 
union, and now he is in many very important respects re- 
sponsible. His marriage itself is his voluntary act, but if 
because of his love to her he enters into this union, after 
that, he is properly held to be responsible for her in cer- 
tain things. 


Something like these various kinds of union, yet deeper 
and more mysterious far than any of them, is the mystic 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 155» 


union of which we speak, which underlies the atonement. 
We cannot understand it perfectly, but this at least we can 
clearly see, that if there is a union between Christ and the 
believer of such a nature that in the sight of God and His 
holy law they are no longer two, but one, then all objec- 
tion based on mere substitution falls away. That there 
really is such a union is taught in passages like the 
following: 
“T have been crucified with Christ and it is no 


longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me’. (Gala- 
tians 2: 20.) 


“The two shall become one flesh. This mys- 
tery is great, but I speak in regard of Christ and 
of the church”. (Ephesians 5: 31, 32.) 


“Know ye not that your bodies are members 
of Christ? Shall I then take the members of 
Christ and make them members of an harlot?” 
(1 Corinthians 6: 15.) 


This mystic union with Christ covers the believer’s sin, 
for which Christ paid the penalty on the cross, but it 
goes much further than that; it covers also everything else 
that the believer has, is, or will be, to all eternity. For 
Christ not only died, He also rose, and is not again subject 
to death. The union, therefore, which makes the death of 
Christ an atonement for my sin joins me also indissolubly 
to His risen life. 


“Tf we have become united with Him in the 
likeness of His death, we shall be also in the like- 
ness of His resurrection”. (Romans 6: 5.) 


“We thus judge, that one died for all, there- 
fore all died; and He died for all, that they that 
live should no longer live unto themselves, but 
unto Him who for their sakes died and rose again’’. 
(2 Corinthians 5:15.) 


This is a point many critics of the atonement forget, 


156 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


and we fear that many Christians forget it, too. Some > 
people sing: “Jesus Paid it All”, and then undertake to 
go and live their own lives according to their own notions. 
It can’t be done. Your union with Christ by faith does not 
cover your guilt for purposes of atonement unless it 
covers YOU, with all you are and have, for all purposes 
whatsoever. It is an unlimited lability partnership, on 
your side as well as on His. 


Happily, this mystic union not only imposes upon us 
new obligations, it provides us with new strength to meet 
them. It is a vital relation, that is, one in which a new 
power and principle of moral life flows from Christ into 
us. The man united to Christ by true faith does not re- 
main the same. There is not only an alteration in his 
status before the law; there is also a transformation in his 
inmost being, whereby he becomes like Christ. Not all at 
once, to be sure, but most certainly. Whatever faults or 
failures there may still be in him, for a time, Christ is 
bound eventually to become dominant in his life. If that 
does not take place it is a sure sign that he is not a Chris- 
tian at all. “If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he 
is none of His”. 


How incomprehensible all this must seem to some of 
our readers, to all who have not themselves experienced 
conversion! We cannot explain it very clearly. We ac- 
cept it on apostolic authority to begin with, but we can 
also say that experience confirms it. Nothing but a real 
reconciliation with God will explain the phenomenon that 
the sense of guilt passes away after conversion, while at 
the same time the conscience grows more sensitive. Noth- 
ing but a real and vital union with Christ will account for 
the transformation constantly witnessed in the lives of 
men and women who yield themselves to Him. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 157 


XXXVITI. 
THE MYSTERY OF SAVING FAITH. 


“What must I do to be saved?” 


“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved’’. 


ERE WE HAVE the most important question in the 
world, and the answer to it. 

We must do something to be saved, that’s sure. We 
know in our own hearts that the Bible is right when it 
says we are sinful men, and therefore lost. To be lost we 
need do nothing at all: we are lost already, and shall 
certainly be lost forever if we meet God in this way. 
Something must be done, but what? 


“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved”. Isthat all? Yes, absolutely all. There is nothing 
else to it. What is it to believe on the Lord Jesus? It is 
to trust Him, to intrust yourself to Him for salvation. You 
can not save yourself, but He can save you, and He will 
do it, if you will let Him do it. He will save you from 
the power and defilement of sin in this life, and from the 
wrath of God in the life that is to come. 


This is the mystery of salvation by faith. It is a “mys- 
tery”, that is to say, a truth that comes to us through ac- 
credited organs of revelation, Jesus Christ and His 
apostles. It could not come to us in any other way. The 
question is how a sinful man’s relation to a holy God may 
be set right. On that point reasoning or guesswork on 
man’s part is worth nothing. We must know what God 
thinks about it, and this we can not know without a reve- 
lation. 


158 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


Back of this offer of salvation to every one that be- 
lieves stands the great work of Christ, wrought in His 
incarnation, His suffering, His resurrection, and His con- 
tinued life in glory. All this was required to make such 
an offer possible. This great transaction has been accom- 
plished, once for all, and the question now is, how you and 
I are to get into touch with it. This is what faith does. 
It makes available for the individual the work of Jesus 
Christ upon the cross. 


We are not to think that since we are saved by faith, 
therefore faith is something meritorious, an act whereby — 
we, in some sense, earn the right of salvation. Oh dear, 
no! Faith is like the act of the beggar in stretching out his 
hand to receive my gift. He does not earn anything by 
that, not a cent; it is merely the acceptance of a free, un- 
earned alms. Faith is like the touch of the trolley upon 
the live wire than runs above the track. There is no 
power in the touch to run the car, but by reason of the 
touch power flows into the machinery. So there is no 
power in faith to save; the power is in Christ and His 
atoning work, but we cannot receive it without the touch 
of faith. 


Saving faith is not the same as believing the Bible, or 
the creeds, or the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ, or 
even the same as believing that Christ on the cross has 
atoned for our sins, or believing any other doctrine what- 
soever. Belief in right doctrine is important, exceedingly 
important, but it is not saving faith. You may believe 
every word of the Bible from cover to cover, and every 
article in the creed; you may be the most orthodox per- 
son that ever lived; and yet, with all your orthodoxy, you 
may go to the devil, whose orthodoxy, at least in one 
point, is guaranteed by the highest authority. 


OF- THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 159 


“Thou believest that there is one God: thou 
doest well; the devils also believe, and tremble’’. 
(James 2:19.) 


Faith in Christ is to trust Him, to intrust yourself to 
Him, as a man intrusts his money to a bank, or himself 
to asurgeon. A man has ten thousand dollars in cash, and 
realizes that it is not safe to have that much ready money 
on his person, or in the house. He inquires about banks, 
and is satisfied that a certain bank is sound. He believes, 
without a doubt, that money deposited in that bank is safe. 
What now? Is his money safe? Nota bit of it. All his 
confidence that this bank is trustworthy has not the slight- 
est effect upon the safety of his cash. He heartily believes 
that the bank is trustworthy, but he has not yet trusted it. 
Do you see the difference? He trusts the bank only when 
he entrusts his money to it, and then only has he any 
claim upon the bank. To do that, he must let the money 
go out of his own hands. He must perform an act of 
trust, in order to secure the safety that he can not secure 
by his own power. 


So it is between us and Christ. To believe that He 
is the divine Redeemer, that He came into the world to 
save men, that He died for our sins upon the cross, and 
rose again from the dead—all that is simply like believing 
a certain bank to be trustworthy. It is good so far as it 
goes, but it is not yet saving faith, because it does not 
involve an act of trust, or a letting go of trust in your- 
self. If all that is present with me, and nothing more, then 
I have believed something about Jesus, but I have not 
yet believed on Jesus. 


The same thing may be illustrated by the relation be- 
tween a patient and the doctor. I may believe ever so 
strongly that Dr. Blank is a fine surgeon; if I have appen- 


160 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


dicitis this will not save me. At most it will only incline 
me to put myself promptly into his hands for an operation. 
Only if I thus entrust myself to him do I get the benefit 
of his skill. Such is the relation between doctrinal faith 
and saving faith. The former is an intellectual process ex- 
ceedingly useful as a preparation for the latter, but in 
itself entirely without effect to the saving of the soul. 
Saving faith is not an intellectual process at all, but an act 
of the will,whereby a person lets go of himself and puts 
himself into the hands of Jesus Christ for salvation. It is 
as definite an act as that of the bride at the altar, who is 
asked: “Dost thou take this man to be thy wedded hus- 
band?” and replies: “I do”. So the spiritual marriage 
that unites the soul to Jesus Christ is accomplished when 
God says: “Dost thou take Jesus Christ to be thy Savior?” 
and I reply with all my heart: “I do”. 


But in order to be saved, is it not necessary to be bap- 
tized, to make confession of faith, to join the church, to 
partake of the Holy Communion, to pray, to read the 
Bible, to abstain from various kinds of sin, and other 
things like that?” No. These are not conditions of sal-’ 
vation. These things mark the Christian. He does them 
after he is saved, because he is saved, but not in order to 
be saved. They have nothing to do with that. One thing, 
and one only, is necessary to: salvation: 


“‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
shalt be saved’’. 


“But at least, in addition to faith, it requires repen- 
tance, does it not?” Of course, faith in Christ implies 
sorrow for sin and a turning away from it, just as calling 
in a doctor involves a desire to get well, and an admission 
that you are sick. Christ presents Himself for your ac- 
ceptance as the physician of your soul, and in no other 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 161 


capacity. If you trust Him, it is for salvation from sin that 
you entrust yourself to Him. This is no addition to faith, 
it is involved in faith. 


We have tried to make clear what faith is. The ques- 
tion is left with every reader, “Are you believing on Jesus 
Christ? If not, why not?’ If you, do not accept Him by 
faith, then, so far as you are concerned, He might as well 
never have come down from heaven and died upon the 
cross. Then Easter Day means no joy to you; you are yet 
in your sins. Why not believe on Him now? 


“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold now 
is the day of salvation’. 


162 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XXXVI. 
THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS. 


FTER JESUS CHRIST has saved a man He owns him. 

This fact was repeatedly emphasized by Christ and 

His apostles. He Himself claimed supreme authority over 

His followers in a way no other teacher has ever dared 
to do. 


“He that loveth father or mother more than 
Me is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or 
daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me’”’. 
(Matthew 10: 37.) 


“Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the 
things that I say’? (Luke 6: 46.) 


“Ye are My friends, if ye do the things that I 
command you”. (John 15:14.) 


“Without Me ye can do nothing’’. (John 15:5.) 


“Ye call Me teacher, and Lord, and ye say 
well, for soI am”. (John 13:13.) 


The apostles put the same thought forward on every 
opportunity. St. Paul, once the proud Pharisee, repeat- 
edly begins his epistles by calling himself the “servant”, 
more properly the“bondservant”,the slave, of Jesus Christ. 
James, who was the brother of Jesus after the flesh, makes 
no point of that relation, but likewise claims the title of 
“slave” to his brother. So does St. Peter in his Second 
Epistle. 


What is involved in this title is plainly, not to say 
bluntly, told the Corinthians: 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 163 


“Ye are not your own, for ye were bought 
with a price’. (1 Corinthians 6:19.) 


“He that is called, being free, is Christ’s bond- 
servant. Ye were bought with a price’’. (1 Cor- 
inthians 7: 23.) 


To the elders of Ephesus St. Paul said: 


“Feed the church of the Lord, which He pur- 
chased with His own blood’. (Acts 20: 28.) 


This is one of the most characteristic things about the 
Christian religion; another point in which it differs from 
all other systems of religion and philosophy as far as the 
east is from the west. The founders of other systems are 
teachers, Jesus is Teacher and Lord. Great teachers, like 
Buddha, Confucius, Socrates, or Plato, were content to 
expound the principles of their philosophy: they never 
assumed the slightest relation of lordship—not to say 
ownership—over those who became their disciples. Mo- 
hammed, to be sure, claimed the obedience of all the 
faithful during his life, but even he relaxed his claims at 
death. Jesus Christ asserts His absolute ownership of all 
who call themselves Christians to the end of time. Every 
one who looks to Him for salvation must reckon with 
this fact—it is to be feared that many Christians forget it. 


Ownership of the person involves ownership of prop- 
erty. A slave cannot possess property. As he belongs to 
his master, so does everything he earns or appears to pos- 
sess. The property of every Christian belongs to Jesus 
Christ without reserve, not one-tenth of it, but all of it. 
He is trustee for it and is under obligation to use it to 
the best of his knowledge and ability, as Christ would 


164 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


have him use it. The use of a suitable portion of his in- 
come for the support of himself and his family is legiti- 
mate, because that is a duty assigned him by his Lord. 
This is not diverting any portion of it from the Lord’s use. 
So with other calls made necessary by the state of society, 
or one’s position in it. Judgment as to details lies with 
the individual Christian, who may obtain the guidance of 
the Lord through prayer; but the fundamental principle 
is the absolute ownership of the redeemed man by the 


Redeemer. 


As with property, so with other things, great and small. 
For the Christian the choice of a husband or wife, of a 
profession, or residence in this city or in that, the books, 
he reads, the amusements he patronizes, the food he eats, 
the beverage he drinks, the political principles he espouses. 
the manner in which he conducts his business, the wages 
he pays his employees, the service he renders his em- 
ployer, the friends with whom he associates, the education 
and training of his children, and anything else in the 
realm of personal conduct—everything is to be decided 
with the thought uppermost in his mind that he belongs to 
Christ. The question for him is not, as it is sometimes 
put: “What would Jesus do?” but, “What would Jesus 
have me do?” The reply to that question, when discov- 
ered to the satisfaction of the Christian, should be decisive 
as to his conduct. There are Christians who live in this 
way—not so many as there should be—and to them be- 
longs the fulness of blessing in the Christian life. 


It is not easy to accept this Lordship of Jesus in one’s 
life. “No man can say: ‘Jesus is Lord’, but by the Holy 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 165 


Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). But where it is accepted, it brings 
the assurance that we shall never be separated from Him. 
He has said: “Where I am ye shall be also”, and through 
His holy apostle Paul He has assured us that: 


“Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor prin- 
cipalities, nor things present, nor things to come, 
nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love 
of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord’. 
(Romans 8: 38.) 


166 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XXXIX. 
THE MYSTERY OF THE NEW BIRTH. 


N THESE DISCUSSIONS we have, on the one hand, 
spoken of what Christ has done for us, in coming into 
the world and dying for our sins; and, on the other hand, 
of what we ourselves do, in accepting Him by faith. There 
is still a third element in Christian experience which must 
not be overlooked, and that is what God does in us. Be- 
coming a Christian has not only its active side, in which, 
by an act of the will, we entrust ourselves to the Saviour, 
but also its passive side, in which we are wrought upon 
by God, to enable and incline us to that faith. As verbs 
may be conjugated not only in the Active Voice, but also 
in the Passive Voice, so there is what we may call the 
Passive Voice in Christian experience. 


Most distinctly is this aspect of the matter brought to 
our attention by the words of our Lord to Nicodemus: 
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born 
again, he can not see the kingdom of heaven”. Nicodemus 
was not a careless, irreligious man, or a man of openly 
wicked life. He was a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, and 
for the most part such men were deeply religious, earnest, 
decent men, as human standards go. We have no cause 
to think otherwise of Nicodemus. Yet Christ says to him 
that he must be born again. That is to say: “Nicodemus, 
before you can even see the kingdom of heaven, that is, 
before you can get any true conception of it, a great change 
must take place in you. You are not fit, as you are at 
present, either to understand it or to have any part in it.” 


Many other passages in the New Testament emphasize 
this same teaching, that men by nature are not fit for the 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 167 


kingdom of heaven, that before they can come into fel- 
lowship with God there must come a fundamental change 
in them; and it is important to notice that the illustrations 
used are those in which the one to be altered is passive, 
not active. St. Paul says: “You hath he quickened (raised 
from the dead) who were dead in trespasses and sins” 
(Ephesians 2:1). Surely nothing is so passive as a dead 
man. Whatever change takes place in him to restore him 
to life, must come from outside. St. John uses the same 
figure when he says: “By this we know that we have 
passed from death unto life, because we love the 
brethren” (I John 3:13). St. Peter uses the imagery of 
the Master when he says: “He hath begotten us again 
(caused us to be born again) unto a living hope”. I Peter 
| Ware 4 ie 


What is it to be born again? Is it to live a good life? 
By no means. To live a good life is to walk in the ways of 
God, but a child must be born before it can walk. Is it 
faith? No, faith is like the act of the baby, as it raises its 
tiny arms and clasps them in loving trust about the 
mother’s neck, but it must first be born, before it can do 
that. Is it repentance? Not that, either. Repentance is 
like the baby’s cry, but it must be born and be a living 
child before it can so much as cry. Being born again is 
so closely associated with these things that it can not be 
separated from them in fact, and yet in its essential nature 
it is different; it is passive, while these things are active. 
It is the origin of life, and these things are manifestations 
of it. Itis what God does in us and for us, a great creative 
act by which He gives life to a dead soul, a divine be- 
getting, whereby the person so born again becomes a child 
of God. 


Without such a change, no amount of educating, teach- 
ing, or reforming will bring a man to God. Before this 


168 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


change takes place, he is what St. Paul calls a “natural 
man’, and it is true that “the natural man receiveth not 
the things of the Spirit, neither can he know them, because 
they are spiritually discerned.” The necessity and pos- 
sibility of such a change as this are among the things 
“spiritually discerned”, and therefore they are promptly 
denied by most men. Nicodemus said at once: “How can 
a man be born again when he is old? Can he enter the 
second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Nico- 
demus was accustomed to the use of symbolic language, 
and can not so grossly have misunderstood Jesus as to 
have meant this literally. He, too, was speaking sym- 
bolically, and meant to say: “How can there be such a 
change in a man when he is full grown, after his habits of 
thought are fixed and his character formed?’ Almost 
every professor of psychology today would agree with 
Nicodemus in denying the possibility of such a change. 


To this Jesus replied that the process was incompre- 
hensible but the fact certain. ‘Marvel not that I said unto 
thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it 
will, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not 
whence it cometh or whither it goeth. So is every one 
that is born of the Spirit”. In other words, you can not 
tell when, where, or how the new birth comes into the 
soul, but if it has happened to you, you can tell quite 
plainly that you are born again; and in the lives of certain 
other people you can see things that give you very good 
reason for thinking the same of them. 


Experience sides with Jesus in this matter, as against 
Nicodemus and the professor of psychology. The number 
of people in whom such a change has clearly, strikingly, 
and sometimes suddenly appeared, often in mature years, 
is so great that a dispassionate examination of the facts 
will leave no doubt. Harold Begbie’s book: ““Twice-born 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 169 


Men”, is well known, and very much worth reading in this 
connection. Any experienced minister or missionary can 
add cases that have come within his own observation. 
Often, in such cases, habits of many years standing, which 
the person concerned had vainly attempted to conquer in 
his own strength, suddenly lose their hold on the man; his 
tastes undergo a complete alteration, and other outward 
signs occur to demonstrate the reality of the inward 
change. 


How can a man tell whether or not he is born again? 
By many proofs, of which we can name only a few. To 
begin with, the soul knows its own states. Just as you 
know within yourself quite clearly whether you love your 
father or mother, your brother or sister, so you know 
whether you love the Lord Jesus Christ and have given 
yourself to Him. “Know ye not as to your own selves, that 
Jesus Christ is in you?” (II Cor. 13:5). If you do know 
that you love and trust Him, then you know that God has 
renewed your heart, for Jesus said: “No man can come 
unto me, except the Father that sent me draw him.” If 
you have come to Him, therefore, you know that it is God 
who has moved you to do so. 


Further, as every mental state results in appropriate 
conduct, so it is here. Various things are laid down in 
the Bible as characteristics of the children of God. If a 
man thinks that he loves the Lord, and yet these things 
are not characteristics of his life, then he is deceiving him- 
self. Those who are born again love other Christians, and 
delight in their company. “By this we know that we have 
passed from death unto life, if we love the brethren”. 
(I John 3:14). They accept the teaching of the apostle: 
“We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he 
who is not of God heareth us not”. (I John 4:6). They 
do not continue in any sinful course of conduct, which 


170 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


they know and recognize to be so. “Whosoever is be- 
gotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in 
him; and he can not sin, because he is begotten of God”. 
This does not mean, of course, that no occasional sins are 
found in him, sins of omission, ignorance, sudden pas- 
sion, and the like; but that he will not deliberately con- 
tinue in any known sin. Finally, he that is born again has 
the fruits of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, — 
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control”. 
(Galatians 5: 22). 


We do not intend to say that all of these things are 
equally present in all those who have experienced the new 
birth, or completely and perfectly present in any; but we 
do assert that, to a greater or less degree, they must cer- 
tainly follow such a change. Where present in the heart 
of any one, and related to faith in Jesus Christ, they 
furnish a well grounded assurance that he isi born again. 
It may be that the new birth took place in early child- 
hood, gradually becoming manifest, under the gracious 
influences of a Christian home; it may be that it took 
place suddenly, when the hand of God arrested the man 
in a course of open wickedness; it matters not when, 
where, or how the wind began to blow, we know that it 
blows. So it matters not whether we can trace the time 
and circumstances of God’s gracious work in us; if only 
we are assured that we are His, then we know that we 
are born again. If we are born again, we are children 
of God; “and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and 
joint heirs with Christ”. (Romans 8:17). 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 171 


XL. 
THE MYSTERY OF DIVINE SELECTION. 


HE CONSCIOUSNESS of having been personally se- 
lected by God to know and love Him finds frequent 
expression in the apostolic literature. This was one of 
the distinctive phenomena of early Christianity, and has 
been since that time, we may add, characteristic of all 
periods of deep religious life. We read such things as 
this: “Knowing, brethren, beloved of God, your election”. 
(I Thess. 1:4). “Peter, an apostle of Christ, to the 
elect . . . . according to the foreknowledge of God the 
Father”. (I Peter 1:1). “Even as He chose us in Him 
before the foundation of the world”. (Ephesians 1: 4). 


This same feeling of having been chosen from the 
mass of mankind to be particularly favored with the love 
and kindness of God, is common among men converted 
from heathenism. Many a time we have heard such men 
—entirely without any instruction in the doctrine of elec- 
tion — pour out their hearts to God in some such way 
as this: “O God, we thank thee that we have been chosen 
from among our country-men to be among the first to 
know and love thee”. It is the Christian consciousness, 
not any form of dogmatic thinking, that speaks in such 
a way. 


This Christian consciousness of having been the ob- 
ject of personal and selective love, is the origin of such 
expressions as we have quoted from the New Testament. 
So far from being primarily a speculative or philosophical 
doctrine, it comes red hot from the heart of the saved 
sinner. Love is the life of election, and it is in this light 
that it must always be studied. What is known theologi- 


172 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


cally as the “doctrine of election”, is merely the human 
attempt to apprehend and state this fact of both consci- 
ousness and revelation. If discussed without the warm 
consciousness of God’s seeking and drawing love that lies 
at the heart of it, it is apt to become a mere lifeless dogma. 


The following hymn is a beautiful statement of this 
feeling that wells up so naturally and sweetly in the heart 
of a child of God. It is No. 212 in the hymnal, entitled: 
“Hymns for the Living Age’, published by the “Century 
Company”, New York. 


I sought the Lord, and afterwards I knew 

He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me. 
It was not I that found, O Saviour true, 

Nay, I was found of Thee. 


Thou didst reach out thy hand and mine enfold, 
I walked, and sank not, on the storm-vexed sea. 
’Twas not so much that I on Thee took hold, 

As Thou, dear Lord, on me. 


I seek, I walk, I love, but oh the whole 

Of love is but my answer, Lord, to Thee. 

For Thou was long beforehand with my soul, 
Always, Thou lovedst me. 


This divine selection is but one aspect of the fact that 
God deals with men, not in the mass, but individually. 
The great preacher, Horace Bushnell, somewhere says 
that omniscience excludes generalizations, these being 
but a method whereby we cover our ignorance. For in- 
stance, because we can not know any and every tree in 
the world by itself, therefore we form the general notion, 
“a tree’, without regard to any particular tree, and use 
that word, made necessary by the limitations of our 
knowledge. But God is not so. He knows every tree as 
well as any other tree, and has no need of generalizations. 
So God deals also with each man by himself, just as he 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 173 


is, separately and apart from all others, without any occa- 
sion to lump him with a billion others in a vague mass 
of human life. We can scarcely be said to have made a 
start in the knowledge of God until we have shifted our 
thoughts of Him from the plural to the singular, and have 
learned to say from the heart: “God loves me, He cares 
for me, He leads me, He has saved me’”’. 


This selective and individual care of God is not denied 
by any Christian, so far as the ordinary affairs of life are 
concerned. We all believe that God selects one man to 
be rich, another to be poor, one to be well, another to be 
sick, according to His own good pleasure, and that He 
thus presides over our individual destinies. This is 
“election according to the fore-knowledge of God”, in 
earthly things. Shall there then be no such individual 
care in heavenly things? If there is “natural selection”, 
shall there be no “divine selection’? 

In all this, God, as is so well said by the Canons of 
Dort, “does not treat men as senseless stones and blocks, 
nor takes away the will and its properties, nor does vio- 
lence thereto, but spiritually quickens, heals, corrects, and 
at the same time sweetly and powerfully bends it”. Yet, 
is it not one of the essential qualities of the will to be 
free? How can it then be bent by the will of another, 
without losing its own essential quality? This seems a 
difficult question, from the standpoint of cold logic, but 
the answer is an open secret to every true lover. A young 
man falls in love with a maiden, and proceeds to make 
love to her. At first she cares little for him, but he con- 
tinues to woo her ardently, until there comes a change. 
Gradually an answering love springs up in her heart. 
His love has kindled hers, and presently she says: “He 
loved me so much that I could not help loving him too”. 
What is this? She could not help it? Is not the heart free 
in loving? If love is forced, can you call it love? Cer- 


174 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


tainly her love was her own voluntary act; yet she was 
sincere also when she said she could not help it, for she 
was conscious that her will had been “sweetly and power- 
fully bent’, by his love. 

Now it lies in the essence of such personal love that 
it is selective. The one beloved feels herself singled out 
to receive this love. So God chooses men to love Him, and 
makes love to them until He wins them; but in all of this 
He acts in accordance with the laws of love, as certainly 
as He governs natural things according to the laws of 
physics and chemistry. Hence it is inevitable that He 
should arouse in the heart this same consciousness of 
having been selected, or singled out, for this is inseparable 
from the consciousness of being the object of personal af- 
fection. Hence arises the doctrine of election. 

Now, to be sure, no sooner do we try to think this 
matter through from the intellectual side than we find 
ourselves in great difficulty. If we seek to relate this 
consciousness of divine selection to the other things we 
know about God and ourselves, a host of unanswerable 
questions confront us.. “If God chooses some, why not 
all? Does God not love all men? Why does He choose 
one, and not another? If God must first draw men, be- 
fore they can come to Christ, then are not some men free 
from blame in rejecting Christ, seeing God has not drawn 
them”? 

It would be easy to lose our way among such problems. 
There is much that we do not know, but this need not sur- 
prise us. In every department of thought, our ignorance 
is always much greater than our knowledge, yet the im- 
portant thing to remember is, that we must live by our 
knowledge, not by our ignorance. In this matter of di- 
vine selection, we know, from the Christian conscious- 
ness on the one hand, and from the revelation of God on 
the other, that there is a personal, selective love of God 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 175 


for us that precedes our love for Him; and that there is a 
passive side to Christian experience, out of which springs 
the active side, as a flower from the soil in which it is 
rooted. We know also that we are free and responsible 
beings, rejecting Christ, if we reject Him, because we have 
no love for holiness; and accepting Him, if we accept Him, 
of our own free will, without being in any way forced to 
do so. We know these latter facts from the same sources 
as the former, namely, from our own consciences and 
from the word of God. Let us then live by what we know, 
and be content to acknowledge our ignorance of that 
which God has not revealed to us. It is equally vain and 
foolish, on the one hand, to deny election because we can 
not harmonize it with the teaching that God loves all men, 
and, on the other, to reject the love of God for all be- 
cause we can not make it agree with election. Both are 
revealed, precious, and necessary truths. 


176 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XLI. 
THE MYSTERY OF THE HOLY TRINITY. 


HE DOCTRINE of the Holy Trinity has been taught 
& and held by the Christian church from very early 
times, being usually expressed in the formula that God is 
one in essence but subsists in three persons, the Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is one of the chief 
mysteries, both as being derived from revelation and as 
being most difficult of comprehension. No one is able 
fully to explain even the terms used, for what do we mean 
by “essence” and “person”, as applied to the unity and dis- 
tinction we intend to assert in the divine being? We 
surely do not mean that there are three entirely separate 
divine beings, for then we should have three Gods: and 
we do not mean merely three modes of manifestation, for 
we think of such relations existing between the Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit as could not be conceived to exist 
between forms or manifestations of the same thing. 


We hold the doctrine of the Trinity as a revealed mys- 
tery, and yet neither the term itself nor any statement of 
the doctrine, as such, is to be found in the Holy Scriptures. 
To be sure, in the ordinary English Bible occurs the fol- 
lowing text: “For there are three that bear record in 
heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and 
these three are one”. (I John 5:7). The best manu- 
scripts, however, do not contain these words, and they 
are therefore rightly omitted by the Revised Version. 


The doctrine of the Trinity, therefore, as such, is not 
a revealed doctrine, but the facts that are therein con- 
fessed are revealed facts. The doctrine, as formulated, is 
an induction made by the early church from these facts. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 177 


It was accepted at the beginning, and is still accepted, as 
all inductions are, because this statement, imperfect as 
it is, is better in accordance with the known facts than 
any other which we can frame. What are these facts? 

First, that there is but one God, the almighty creator 
of heaven and earth, and of all things therein, both visible 
and invisible. i 

Second, that Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh. 
He is called God, He assumes the position and prerog- 
atives of God, the works and nature of God are attributed 
to Him, and in every way His deity is emphasized in the 
New Testament writings. 

Third, that while Jesus Christ is God, He also speaks 
of himself as subordinate to the Father, as one with Him 
and yet distinct from Him, as sent by Him and returning 
to Him. Jesus prayed to the Father, using the words “T” 
and “Thou”. This is the distinction of persons. 

Fourth, that the Holy Spirit also is spoken of as God. 
In Acts 5:3 Peter tells Ananias that he has lied to the 
Holy Spirit, and immediately thereafter, that he has lied 
to God. Similarly, in many places, the Holy Spirit is 
identified with God, in His nature, work, and authority. 

Fifth, that the Holy Spirit is clearly distinguished from 
the other persons in the Trinity, as being sent by them, 
poured out by them, interceding with them, etc. 

The early church, having these facts before it, coming 
from undoubted historical evidence and accredited or- 
gans of revelation, sought a form of words that would 
combine them into the clearest possible conception of the 
divine nature. The formula of the Holy Trinity is the 
result. God is confessed to be one in essence and three 
in persons. 

Much ridicule has been heaped upon this doctrine, as 
teaching that one is equal to three, but this is an inex- 


178 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


cusable misrepresentation. If the teaching were that God 
is one in a certain sense, and at the same time three in 
the same sense, it would truly be absurd, for one is not 
equal to three. The teaching is that God is one in a cer- 
tain sense, and three in another sense. There is no ab- 
surdity about that, even if we are not able to state clearly 
in what sense He is one, and in what sense three. That a 
thing may be one in one sense, and at the same time be 
three in another sense, is easily illustrated by the case of 
steam, water, and ice. Are these three, or one? Clearly 
they are different things, each having qualities that do 
not belong to the others, but it is also clear that, in an- 
other sense, they are one and the same thing. This is not 
offered as an illustration of the Holy Trinity, but merely 
of the fact that it is not absurd or contradictory to speak 
of a thing or a being as both three and one at the same 
time, three in one sense and one in another sense. 


Illustrations of such a thing as the Trinity carry us 
but a little way, yet they are not wholly useless. The best 
is probably that of the sun, with its light and heat. It is 
evident that there is a distinction between these three. 
The sun itself sends out light and heat, and is other than 
the things it sends out. The rays of light leave the sun and 
travel to this earth, carrying heat with them. Presently 
the sun sets, the rays of light are seen no more, but the 
heat remains, and is the source of all life. Yet, in another 
view of the case, the heat, the light, and the body of the 
sun combine to make the sun as we knowit. They inhere 
in the sun, and without them the sun would not be the sun 
at all. The three, while distinct, together form one 
luminary. 

If, now, we think of the body of the sun as the Father, 
of the light sent out by it and revealing it to us, as the 
Son, and of the life-giving power of warmth which re- 
mains behind and pervades all things, although itself in- 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 179 


visible, as the Holy Spirit, we get perhaps the best illustra- 
tion that is possible of the unity and distinction in the 
Holy Trinity. 


That the formulation of the doctrine, in the historic 
creeds, is imperfect and unsatisfactory, may be frankly 
admitted.. That formulation is a human work, and is 
open to criticism. We speak of the Son as co-eternal with 
the Father, and yet as begotten by Him. Is this not con- 
tradictory? If one is begotten by another, does it not seem 
to follow that the one who begets exists before the one 
who is begotten by him? Evidently, when using the terms 
“Father”, “Son”, and “Begotten” in this manner, we are 
not using them in exactly the ordinary meaning. We are 
doing the best we can, and using the human expressions 
that come nearest to a correct statement of the relations 
that subsist between the divine persons; but they are hu- 
man words, and the thing to be defined is the divine being, 
so that we need not be surprised if the human words 
prove inadequate. If any one can find better expressions, 
let him do so; if only he remains true to the facts as given 
in the gospel. 


That is the trouble with all such attempts hitherto. 
_ Arianism in the early church, Socinianism in the times of 
the Reformation, and Russellism today, deny the doctrine 
of the Trinity, but at the cost of denying the deity of Christ 
and the deity and personality of the Holy Spirit. In other 
words, they are not true to the known facts, as found in 
the New Testament. It is neither scientific nor Christian 
to deny or ignore the essential facts because we have 
not succeeded in finding a perfect formula to express 
them. It is false to say that the doctrine of the Holy 
Trinity originated in philosophical or metaphysical specu- 
lation. It had its origin in experience, just as all the other 
great doctrines of the Christian religion did. It took its 


180 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


rise from certain facts, and is an attempt to understand 
the facts, just as the formulas of science are an attempt to 
state the meaning of observed facts. 


This doctrine of the Holy Trinity is not only one of the 
great standard doctrines of the Christian religion, it is 
essential to religious life, in a broad sense; although not, 
perhaps, essential to the religious life of every individual. 
It seems to many people hopelessly abstruse and very re- 
mote from any practical interest, and yet it is a fact that 
religious systems without it are lifeless. Judaism, Moham- 
medanism, and Unitarianism are examples of what re- 
ligion becomes when governed by the idea of the unity of 
God without His trinity. We can not let go of this doctrine 
without rejecting the New Testament as a divine revela- 
tion, and without losing our faith in a divine Saviour who 
atoned for our sins, and in a divine indwelling Spirit who 
renews and sanctifies us. If we let go these things, we 
have lost the very heart of the gospel. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 181 


XLII. 
THE MYSTERY OF THE VIRGIN BIRTH 


NE OF THE MYSTERIES revealed to us in the New 

Testament is that the Lord Jesus was born of a virgin, 
by the operation of the Holy Spirit. The church confesses 
this truth in the words of the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe 
in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord, who was 
conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary”. 
This has been from the beginning one of the standard 
doctrines of the Christian religion, and has been singu- 
larly free from contradiction or doubt within the church, 
until within the last fifty years. So much has been said 
about it recently that it seems desirable to include it in 
the number of subjects treated in this volume. 


We have classed it among the “mysteries”, that is, the 
things we believe, not on ordinary, historical evidence, but 
on apostolic authority. It is part of the apostolic testi- 
mony to our Lord, but differs from the ordinary events of 
His life in that it did not lie within the range of their own 
personal knowledge. They profess, themselves, to have 
it by revelation, St. Matthew, through the dream of Joseph, 
and St. Luke, through the angelic announcement to Mary. 
It was from the first accepted by the church, and is ac- 
cepted by us, for two reasons, first, because of our confi- 
dence in the apostolic witness, and second, because such a 
manner of birth agrees, far better than any other of which 
we can think, with the facts of Christ’s personality, char- 
acter, and work. 

It is important to remember that the virgin birth has 
never been accepted except by Christians, and we do not 
pretend that we can adduce any proof that will be con- 


182 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


vincing to others. Christians believe in God, as able to 
work miracles, and as having worked the supreme mir- 
acle in the resurrection of Christ. They believe that Jesus 
was the Christ, the promised Saviour of the world, sent 
by the Father into the world for our redemption. They 
believe, also, that the apostles were truthful and com- 
petent witnesses, and were appointed by Christ to be the 
official teachers of the church. People who do not be-— 
lieve as much as this can not be called “Christians”, in 
the historical meaning of that term, whatever they may 
call themselves. Now then, if people do believe these 
things, where lies the difficulty in believing the virgin 
birth? 


Is there, perchance, a doubt, upon the basis of the an- 
cient manuscripts, as to whether this story belongs in the 
Bible? Not at all. All extant manuscripts have it exactly 
as it is in our English Bibles. To be sure, one manuscript 
says, in Matthew 1:16, “Joseph begat Jesus”, but even 
this manuscript has the rest of the story, both in Matthew 
and in Luke, in the ordinary form, so that it makes little 
or no difference. | 


Did the ancient church seem ignorant of this doctrine, 
so that we may suppose it to have been invented later? 
By no means. One of the very earliest of the church 
fathers was Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, who suffered 
martyrdom about 110 A.D. We have certain letters 
from him, in which the virgin birth is repeatedly men- 
tioned. The Apostles’ Creed embodies the faith of the 
early church, and in this creed the entire exalted concep- 
tion of the early church concerning Jesus Christ is ex- 
pressed in the phrase: “His only Son, our Lord, who was 
conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary.” 
Nothing further was said to confess the faith of the church 
in His deity, because nothing further seemed required. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 183 


Where, then, lies the difficulty, that the peace and 
faith of the church should, in recent years, be so greatly 
disturbed on this issue? Has something new been dis- 
covered by science, which makes it harder for us than 
for our fathers to believe such a thing? Notso. Biology 
has made great progress, and the secrets of the origin 
of life are far better known today than ever before; but 
people in the first century knew quite as well as we that 
in the way of nature a virgin birth was impossible. It is 
just because they knew that so well that they acclaimed 
it as supremely credible and appropriate in the case of 
God incarnating Himself in human form. 


It is not that science has discovered any special thing 
which, unknown before, now makes belief in the virgin 
birth impossible; but because our scientific studies have 
created an attitude of mind, even among Christians, which 
seeks at every cost to eliminate any exception to the reign 
of natural law. However natural this attitude may be, 
it has no logical validity for any Christian, for, as already 
pointed out, a Christian must believe in an almighty God 
who has from time to time manifested Himself by acts of 
creative power, specifically in the resurrection of Christ. 
If one believes that, he has no logical standing ground for 
denying the possibility of the miraculous in the birth of 
Christ. If he does not believe that, we decline to discuss 
the virgin birth with him. 


Two reasons are commonly brought forward as casting 
doubt upon the credibility of the virgin birth; first, the 
alleged similarity of this story to stories found in other 
religions; second, the alleged silence of the New Testa- 
ment, outside Matthew and Luke, with regard to it. As 
to the first reason, when we ask what these stories are, 
we are referred to certain nature myths, and to various 
tales in ancient authors, smutty stories of gods who took 


184 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


the form of men, or, sometimes, worse still, of beasts or 
serpents, and in this form has intercourse with human 
women, causing them to have children. How any one 
possessed of a litthe common sense can offer these tales 
as parallel to the story of the birth of Jesus, is difficult to 
understand. They are not virgin birth stories at all, for 
the supernatural element invariably consists in the alleged 
incarnation of the god, after which there is nothing but a 
natural process. Moreover, such stories do not concern 
historical persons, and there is no pretense that the infor- 
mation proceeds from contemporary documents, written 
by well known and responsible men. 


The Rev. L. M. Sweet, quoted by Canon Box, says: 
“After a laborious and occasionally wearisome study of 
the evidence offered and the analogies urged, we are con- 
vinced that heathenism knows nothing of virgin births.” 
We can not, of course, take the space here to go into this 
question in detail, but let us look for a moment at the case 
of Gautama, the founder of Buddhism. Dr. Wm. Ban- 
croft Hill says of this story that it is “the one most similar 
to that of Jesus’, therefore it ought to be a fair sample. 
Some months ago a former Grand Rapids pastor, explain- 
ing the reasons that led him to leave the ministry, said 
that the Buddhist could answer the Christian story of 
Christ’s birth by one of his own, equally entitled to be- 
lief, or words to that effect. Let us see. 


In the first place, the mother of Gautama was a mar- 
ried woman, always spoken of and referred to as such, in 
all Buddhist documents. How is there any possibility, 
then, of a “virgin birth’? Whatis meant is a supernatural 
birth, which is a different thing. As to that, the nearest 
approach to any such thing in the very early documents 
(themselves admittedly composed centuries after the time 
of Buddha) is a statement to the effect that his mother, 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 185 


before his birth was “pure from sexuality”, but two 
learned editors, Edmunds and Anesaki, untroubled by 
any orthodox Christian sentiments, tell us in their com- 
ment on this passage that it has nothing to do with the 
conception of Buddha, but only with the period between 
conception and birth. (“Buddhist and Christian Scriptures 
Compared”, p. 174). This is a typical instance of the way 
such parallels evaporate when carefully examined. 


As to the alleged silence of the rest of the New Testa- 
ment, it is certainly true, and somewhat surprising, that the 
story is not re-told, or explicitly referred to, in any other 
place, except the well-known gospel stories. Yet, to argue 
from this that St. Paul and the other New Testament writ- 
ers did not know of this story, or did not believe it, is going 
much too far. It is wholly incredible, for instance, that St. 
John, when composing his gospel, was ignorant of it, for 
the gospels of Matthew and Luke are conceded to have been 
extant at the time, and there is reason to consider him as 
deliberately supplementing them. Yet St. John also is si- 
lent. After all, this silence can be duplicated in the preach- 
ing of any orthodox minister, from the beginning of Janu- 
ary to the middle of December each year, in spite of the fact 
that he firmly believes the virgin birth, and that it underlies 
his whole conception of Christ. He simply has no occasion 
to refer to it. Why may it not have been so with the 
apostles? 


If we are to believe, as some would have it, that St. Paul 
and the others were silent with reference to the virgin birth 
because they did not know of this doctrine, or did not be- 
lieve it, or kept it a profound secret, then we must believe 
that it was no part of the ordinary Christian faith until af- 
ter their time. Yet in the immediately sub-apostolic age,— 
that of Ignatius—it is spoken of as the corner-stone of the 
Christian faith. How is it possible that the church of that 
day, professing to take its doctrine from the apostles, gave 


186 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


so prominent a place to something they did not teach? It 
seems utterly incredible, and certainly is far too large a 
structure to build merely upon their silence in their extant 
- writings—supposing them to be really silent. 


But are they? They constantly lay stress upon the fact 
that Jesus was the “Son of God”, “the only-begotten’’, etc. 
What did they mean by that? Let us turn to Luke 1: 35. 
There, in answer to Mary’s question, how she shall conceive 
without contact with a man, the angel says: “The Holy 
Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest 
shall overshadow thee, wherefore also the holy thing 
which is begotten shall be called the Son of God’. This 
surely looks like a definition of the sense in which the ex- 
pression “Son of God”, was used in the apostolic church. If 
the phrase had that meaning at that time, then every pas- 
sage where the words “Son of God” occurs becomes a wit- 
ness to the faith of the apostles in the virgin birth. With- 
out going so far as to insist that this was certainly the case, 
may it not have been so? If it may be so, then it is not clear 
that there is any such apostolic silence as is insisted on; and 
the whole case built upon that alleged silence, weak enough 
at best, falls to the ground. 


To sum up the whole matter: the doctrine of the virgin 
birth has been from the beginning one of the great stand- 
ard doctrines of the Christian religion, intimately con- 
nected in the mind of the church, with his deity in fact, 
inseparable from it. Since that time, not a single thing has 
been discovered that casts any doubt upon it; science tells 
us nothing pertaining to the subject that was not well 
enough known, for all practical purposes, to the ancient 
Christians. There is not the remotest cause to reject it on 
the ground of the ancient manuscripts. The view of science 
and philosophy that Christians must accept, if they are to 
be Christians at all, justifies no objection to it. The alleged 
non-Christian parallels, and the alleged silence of the New 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 187 


Testament (outside of Matthew and Luke) are alike found, 
when carefully examined, to be without validity as bearing 
upon the subject. In short, there remains no reason at all 
why earnest Christians should be troubled in mind, or 
should tolerate, within the Christian circle, any denial of 
this most precious and important doctrine. 


188 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XLII. 
THE MYSTERY OF THE EXPECTED RETURN. 


HAT the Lord Jesus Christ will return to this earth at 
some time in the future,personally and visibly, in the 
body, is one of the most prominent teachings of the New 
Testament. From the earliest ages until the present time 
this belief has been held and confessed by the church. It is 
in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, as well as in that of 
Athanasius. It is accordingly held by the Greek Catholic 
Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and by all Protestant 
churches that seek to be scriptural and evangelical. There 
is no doctrine more firmly established as part of the his- 
toric Christian faith. 

This expectation is intimately connected with the phys- 
ical resurrection and ascension of our Lord. If one does 
not believe that Christ rose again and ascended to heaven 
in the body, of course, he will not believe in the Second 
Advent, but if he does, he is prepared to join in expecting 
Him back. As St. Paul says: “Christ, being raised from 
the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over 
him”. (Romans 6: 9.) 

That He will come again was announced to His disciples 
by angelic messengers immediately upon His departure 
from them. ‘“‘While they were looking steadfastly into 
heaven as He went, behold two men stood by them in white 
apparel, who also said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye 
looking up into heaven? This Jesus, who was received 
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as 
ye beheld Him going up into heaven’. (Acts 1:11.) This 
announcement was no surprise to them, if they had remem- 
bered and understood what Jesus taught them on repeated 
occasions about His going away and coming again, espe- 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 189 


cially in the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth chapters of the 
Gospel of Matthew. That they did take these promises to 
heart, is evident from many passages of the New Testa- 
ment. St. Peter took occasion to say to his hearers in one 
of his earliest discourses: “Repent ye, therefore, and turn 
again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may 
come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, 
and that He may send the Christ who hath been appointed 
for you, even Jesus,whom the heaven must receive until the 
time of restitution of all things”. St. Paul, speaking to the 
Athenians, informs them that God “hath appointed a day 
in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that 
man whom He hath ordained”, showing that when Christ 
comes He is coming “to judge the living and the dead”. 


Not long after this address at Athens, St. Paul wrote the 
two epistles to the Thessalonians,the chief topic of which is 
the Lord’s return. In the first of these letters, it is given as 
one of the marks of the Christian to live in expectation of 
the Second Coming: for he reminds his readers that they 
had “turned from idols to serve a living and true God, and 
to wait for His Son from heaven, even Jesus”. The same 
expectation is manifest in the epistles to the Corinthians, 
and in almost all the other letters of St. Paul, as well as in 
the other New Testament books. When we come to the 
book of Revelation, we find a large part of the book occu- 
pied with the Second Advent and the accompanying cir- 
cumstances. Finally, on the last page of the Bible, as the 
final promise of the Saviour, we have the words: “Yea, I 
come quickly”. Thereupon the believing church replies: 
Amen, come, Lord Jesus’. Since that time we have been 
waiting, and we are waiting still, with a great longing to 
see the Lord return. 

The matter being so clear in the New Testament, and 
taught with so great emphasis, Christian people who ac- 
cept the teaching of Christ and His apostles are in no 


190 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


doubt about the matter. They accept this mystery in faith, 
as they do the others, and look eagerly for His appearing, 
personally, and visibly. That He will judge the world is a 
part of this general Christian expectation, but there is much 
difference of view, among sincere and earnest Bible stu- 
dents, as to what may be expected to take place before and 
in connection with the Second Advent. Such problems are 
intimately connected with one’s understanding of the pas- 
sage in Revelation 20: 5-7. This speaks of a period of a 
thousand years, at the beginning of which the righteous 
dead will be raised. They will then reign with Christ upon 
the earth, which implies a continuance of ordinary human 
life there. At the close of the thousand years occurs a new 
outbreak of evil, which is suppressed by divine power, af- 
ter which the rest of the dead are raised, and the final judg- 
ment takes place. 


This passage divides Bible students into three classes: 
(1) The A-millennarians, or non-millennarians, who inter- 
pret it symbolically, or, not knowing what to make of it, at 
least decline to build, on this one passage, a system of be- 
lief in regard to the details of the Second Coming. (2) The 
Post-Millennarians, who regard the “reign” of Christ dur- 
ing the thousand years as meaning the triumph of the gos- 
pel and His consequent spiritual reign in the hearts of men. 
They think that such a blessed period will be brought about 
by the gradual dissemination of the gospel, and that Christ 
will come in judgment after this millennium. (2) The Pre- 
millennarians, who believe that Christ will come before the 
thousand years, and that during this period He will reign 
over the entire world. They mean this in the ordinary 
sense, that He will conduct a secular government, levy 
and c_llect taxes, issue laws, maintain a police force, courts, 
etc., and do all the things that normally belong to govern- 
mental functions. All national governments will then be 
abolished, or, if permitted to continue, will be subordinate 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 191 


departments under His control. At the close of the thou- 
sand years there will be a great rebellion, followed by the 
resurrection of the wicked and the general judgment. 


What shall we say to these things? The writer of these 
discussions must frankly confess that he has not been able 
to make up his mind. On the one hand, the Post-millennial 
view, it seems to him, must be ruled out at once. If we 
make up our minds that Christ is not to come until the 
close of a period of a thousand years, which period has not 
yet begun, then all the passages which admonish us to watch 
for His coming, and for the signs thereof, are utterly mean- 
ingless to us. On the other hand, it is almost as difficult to 
accept the Pre-millennial view, at least as ordinarily stated. 
The passages adduced in favor of it very often seem to 
mean something else than the Pre-millennarians find in 
them. Pre-millennarian exposition of the Bible seems in 
numerous places guilty of ignoring the context and of 
straining the meaning of texts in order to bring them into 
harmony with their system. One prominent illustration of 
this is I Thess. 4: 15-17, which they make the basis of their 
doctrine of the “Rapture”. By this they mean that some 
time—any time at all, perhaps today or tomorrow,—sud- 
denly, the true Christians will disappear, leaving the nom- 
inal church behind. Then will follow the period of “‘the 
great tribulation”, during which Anti-Christ will flourish, 
and at the end of which Christ will appear in glory, fol- 
lowed by the millennium. This “Rapture” is necessary to 
their theory, but it is hard to get it out of that passage in 
I Thessalonians. To do so one must take it that although 
the Lord descends “with a shout,with the voice of the arch- 
angel, and with the trump of God”, nevertheless it is a 
secret affair, inasmuch as only the elect will hear the said 
trumpet call! It surely seems a strange way to describe a 


192 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


secret “Rapture”. One must also split up the Second Com- 
ing, which appears everywhere to be spoken of as one great 
event, into two or more “comings”, at different times, and 
for different purposes. 


It seems to us much more in harmony with the attitude 
of the New Testament writers to understand spiritually 
many Old Testament passages which the Pre-millennarians 
understand literally. Above all, what they wish us to do 
seems to be precisely what the apostle Paul warns us not to 
do: “Now I beseech you, brethren, .... that ye be not 
troubled ... as that the day of the Lord is just at hand. 
Let no man beguile you in any wise, for it will not be, ex- 
cept...” (II Thess. 2:2.) Here he goes on to tell what 
signs must first appear. Evidently they were to be real 
signs, signs that any earnest Christian could recognize 
when they came, for he says in the first epistle: “Ye 
brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake 
you as a thief”. With this agrees what our Lord says: Now 
from the fig tree learn her parable: when her branch is be- 
come tender and putteth forth its leaves, ye know that the 
summer is nigh”. The budding of the fig-tree is a sign that 
any one can see who pays any attention to it, and after the 
buds appear there intervene yet some weeks before the 
summer is upon us. So it is to be at the coming of the Lord. 
We are not to suppose that He will come today or tomor- 
row, in the “Rapture” or otherwise, unannounced. There 
will be signs which earnest believers will generally recog- 
nize. No such signs have yet appeared. All the alleged 
signs have been of a very doubtful nature, and mistakes 
without number have been made in interpreting them. 
Signs so diffcult to interpret are no signs at all. We have 
no doubt that when the time does draw nigh the signs will 
be as unmistakable as the budding of the fig-tree. It is our 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 193 


duty to be on the watch for such signs, and in the meantime 
to be faithful in the Lord’s work, that when He comes we 
may be found, like good servants, attending to the tasks He 
has assigned us; showing our faith in His return rather by 
such faithful labor than by much discussion and specula- 
tion concerning the time and manner of the event. 


194 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


XLIV. 
THE MYSTERY OF THE LIFE AFTER DEATH 


T SEEMS TO BE, in a general way, inherent in the nature 
of man to believe in a life after death. Such a faith has 
been cherished, with many varying degrees of clearness, by 
almost all races of whose religious beliefs we have any 
knowledge. Even systems of religion and philosophy, like 
Buddhism, that start with a denial of it, are forced even- 
tually, if they would attain any considerable acceptance 
among men, to include it. So we find the soul symbolical- 
ly represented, upon the ancient Egyptian monuments, as 
leaving the body and appearing before the gods for judg- 
ment; we find the ancient Greeks and Romans discoursing 
about the “land of shades” and the “happy isles”; we find 
ancestor worship testifying to the same faith in the Far 
East; and we find the American Indians having their 
doctrine of the “happy hunting grounds”. Man feels him- 
self other than the clod, and refuses to surrender faith in 
his own immortality. 


Nevertheless, all this, while significant so far as it 
goes, is exceedingly vague. It rarely or never has risen 
to clear certainty of conviction, or to a glad anticipation 
of the life to come. Nor has it ever been possible to ad- 
duce adequate proof, from science or philosophy, that this 
universal instinct is well founded. There have indeed 
been master minds who, like Plato, have undertaken to 
show the reasonableness of immortality, but their argu- 
ments, though interesting, are inconclusive. All the more 
impressive is it that an expectation for which reasoned 
proof is so seriously defective should have, and should 
retain, so strong a hold on the minds of men. Yet, the 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 195 


weakness and vagueness of this expectation, where the 
gospel is not accepted, are most pathetic. 

Such was the general condition of mankind up to the 
beginning of the Christian era. Suddenly there appears, 
between 30 and 60 A. D., a fundamental change in men’s 
attitude towards this question. A new religion has arisen, 
the adherents of which hold the conviction of immor- 
tality with a hitherto unheard of clearness, strength, and 
enthusiasm. They declare their hope with jubilant ac- 
cents, they look forward to the life after death with eager 
anticipation, declaring that to them to die is gain, and in 
numerous instances they seal this declaration by accept- 
ing death as better than denial of their faith. What has 
happened to produce this change? Has there been some 
new scientific discovery, some avenue of intercourse 
opened with the spirits of the dead, or has some philos- 
opher arisen who has been able at last to satisfy the mind 
with arguments for survival? Nothing of the kind has 
occurred. Something has come to pass that is far more 
convincing than all that. 

Some one has arisen from the dead, no more to die. 

The Christian doctrine of immortality, like all the 
other great Christian doctrines, rests upon the two mighty 
pillars: first, a fact, an observable and provable objective 
occurrence; second,a revelation,intimately connected with 
that fact, in the form of authoritative teaching. For all 
who believe the alleged resurrection to be a fact, and who 
accept the alleged organs of revelation as true messengers 
from God, the question is settled, the problem is solved. 
Those who do not are no better off, so far as this matter 
is concerned, than they would have been if Christ had 
never come. They must either reject the belief in per- 
sonal immortality altogether, as a baseless superstition, 
or they must accept it in the vague instinctive way of the 
pre-Christian and non-Christian world. 


196 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


The teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself on this 
point is exceedingly clear. He said: 


“Fear not them which kill the body, but are 
not able to kill the soul. (Matthew 10:28). Be 
not afraid of them that kill the body, and after 
that have no more that they can do. (Luke 12: 
14). Father, into Thy hands I command my 
spirit.” (Luke 23:46). “The beggar died, and 
was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: 
the rich man also died, and was buried, and in 
hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments.” 
(Luke 16:22 and 23). 


Any one can see that in these utterances of our Lord 
it is clearly taught that the soul is something distinct from 
the body, living on after the death of the latter. That the - 
two will be united again at the resurrection is also a part 
of His teaching: 


“As touching the resurrection of the dead, 
have ye not read that which was spoken unto you 
by God, saying: I am the God of Abraham, and 
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is 
not the God of the dead, but of the living.” 
(Matthew 22: 82). 

“The hour cometh, in which all that are in the 
tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth, 
they that have done good, unto the resurrection 
of life, and they that have done evil, unto the 
resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:28, 29). 


To His disciples, Jesus spoke those words of immortal 
comfort which we find in the fourteenth chapter of John’s 
gospel: 

“In my Father’s house are many mansions. If 
it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to 
prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare 
a place for you, I come again, and will receive 
you unto myself, that where I am ye may be also.” 
(John 14: 2, 8). 

The teaching of the apostles coincides in all respects 
with that of Jesus, besides having the additional element 
of an appeal to His resurrection. 


OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 197 


‘“‘Having therefore obtained the help that is 
from God, I stand unto this day, testifying to both 
small and great . . . that the Christ must suffer, 
and how that He first, by the resurrection of the 
dead should proclaim light both to the people 
and to the Gentiles.” (Acts 26:22, 23.) 
“Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who abolished death, 
and brought life and immortality to light through 
the gospel.” (II Timothy 1:10). ‘‘Blessed be 
God, who begat us again unto a living hope by 
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” 
(I Peter 1:3). “If we believe that Jesus died 
and rose again, even so them that are asleep in 
Jesus will God bring with Him.” (I Thess. 4:14). 

It is clear that the full glory of the life to come will be 
enjoyed only after the resurrection has re-united soul and 
body; but it is equally clear that in the mean time the 
soul has not passed out of existence, nor is it in a state 
of unconsciousness, but is with the Saviour in glory, if 
united to Him by a true faith. To the dying thief on the 
cross, Jesus said: “Verily I say unto thee: To-day shalt 
thou be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43). We are 
not ignorant that from the days of Theophylact, nearly 
a thousand years ago, there have been some who would 
join the adverb “to-day” with the first part of the sen- 
tence, translating it as follows: “I say unto thee to-day: 
‘Thou shalt be with me in Paradise”; but this is, as the 
very learned Dean Alford bluntly puts it, “something 
worse than silly”, and is accepted by no Bible translators 
of any country or age, so far as we have been able to 
learn. The expression “Verily I say unto you”, is found 
more than eighty times in the four gospels, and is one 
of the expressions most characteristic of Jesus. In every 
case the message so solemnly announced follows imme- 
diately. No adverb qualifying that formula can be sup- 
posed to follow. The word to-day is placed, in this case, 
directly after “Verily I say unto thee,” to make it em- 
phatic. The Lord wishes to assure the penitent thief that 
no long wait would be necessary. That very day he would 
be with the Saviour in Paradise. 


198 THE FACTS AND MYSTERIES 


This also was the expectation and is the teaching of 
the apostle Paul, for he says to the Philippians: “I am in 
a strait betwixt the two, having a desire to depart and be 
with Christ, for it is very far better.” (Philippians 1: 23). 
To the Corinthians he puts it still more plainly: “We are 
willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at 
home with the Lord.” (II Cor. 5: 8). 

We have but touched the fringe of the subject in these 
quotations. The New Testament pulsates everywhere 
with this great hope, that the present life is but the portal 
of the much better and enduring life to come, for all those 
who have been made heirs of the salvation that is in 
Christ. One of our greatest duties, therefore, if we would 
truly be Christians, is to bear this hope constantly in 
mind, and deliberately to train ourselves to look away 
from earthly things to the heavenly, thinking, living, and 
speaking like men who are pilgrims and strangers in the 
world, and are seeking another country, that is, an 
heavenly. This is not an easy thing to do. It requires 
deliberate and constant effort. “Set your mind on things 
that are above, not on the things that are on earth.” To 
be heavenly minded is not natural to any of us, and it will 
not come without much prayerful looking forward to our 
eternal state. 

To the science and reason of man, the world to come 
is an impenetrable mystery, but to the Christian it is not. 
The resurrection of Christ and the revelation given us by 
Him and His holy apostles have lifted the veil. There- 
fore we tread our earthly pathway with uplifted heads, 
knowing that each day brings our salvation nearer than 
the last. 


‘“‘Wherefore we faint not; but though our out- 
ward man is decaying, yet our inward man is re- 
newed day by day. For our light affliction, which 
is for the moment, worketh for us more and more 
exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we 
look not at the things which are seen, but at the 
things which are not seen: for the things which are 
seen are temporal, but the things which are not 
seen are eternal.” (II Cor. 4: 16-18). 


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